New EAC e-Passport has all vital data

The new EAC e-Passport is complete and has all the essential data for travel contrary to media reports that it lacks vital information for facilitating secure travel. The chip of the new Uganda EAC e-Passport is complete and no further information is expected to be written on it once it is personalised and delivered to the applicant.
Currently, applicants for the new Uganda EAC Passport are required to fill a necessary form for application of a passport and among other things, attach the National Identification Card, which has their National Identification Numbers (NIN). The NIN is then used by the ministry to get access to the biometrics of the applicant of the passport, which information is written on the chip. The National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira), has provided the scanners to verify the authenticity of the National Identification Cards.
The new Uganda EAC e-Passport is compliant to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommended specification which specifies in its document 9303, that an e-Passport must have special biometric features, which specifically identify the passport for purposes of enhancing the security during travel.
ICAO has already written to the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirming to us that our new Uganda EAC e-Passport goes beyond the minimum standards for electronic travel documents.
The good news for Ugandans is that the new EAC e-Passport has been accepted worldwide and Ugandans are free to apply for it and use it for travel. We have issued more than 19,000 new EAC e-Passports as of February 14, 2019. Many prominent Ugandans have travelled to different destinations worldwide. To date, we have not received any single person returned to any of our borders as well as Entebbe International Airport on grounds of refusing the new EAC e-Passport.
The only one incident which took place at the Danish Embassy in Nairobi where two Ugandans’ visas were not issued by the Danish Embassy on the basis that the Danish Government was yet to complete updating their system with the security features of our new Passport; and as such, they were told to go back later for the visas since their travel is in April 2019.
In addition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issuing a press statement clarifying the matter, the Danish Ambassador is also said to have taken the matter seriously and made a courtesy call to the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and explained that the delay to issue the visa to Ugandans was because they are still updating their system so that all their embassies can have access to the security features of our new passport. It was not related to the quality of our e-passport. Most of the ensuing discussion and enquiries are based on this one incident.
Ugandans are, therefore, called upon to apply for the new EAC e-Passport and freely use it for travel as it is the most secure for international travel because of its enhanced security features.
Jacob Siminyu,
Ministry of Internal Affairs