Asian community seeks citizenship rights

Asians living in Uganda are seeking to be recognised constitutionally as an indigenous community within the country, Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported on Tuesday, citing a memorandum from the Asian Community sent to the Ugandan Constitutional Review Commission. In the document, the community asked the Commission to extend voting rights to non-citizens who were taxpayers and had been resident in Uganda for five years, the report said. “Asian Ugandans here should be recognised, like the Banyarwanda, in Uganda and accepted as a tribe here,” it quoted the memorandum as saying. The document said that such a move would demonstrate to the world that Uganda had put its past record on Asians behind. In 1972 Ugandan dictator Idi Amin expelled thousands of Asians, saying it was part of his economic programme to Africanise the economy.

The memorandum suggested that the Asians recognised in Uganda under these proposals should have valid working permits and should be citizens of the Commonwealth. People in this category were currently subject to taxation without representation, which was neither fair nor democratic, it added. The memorandum also appealed for the ban on dual nationality to be lifted, RNA reported. Dual nationality would benefit the country by maintaining a link for those Ugandans who had moved overseas and who may at the moment, for reasons such as pension benefits, be forced to relinquish their nationality. Dual citizenship would also provide a bond between Uganda and foreign permanent residents, which could improve inward investment, according to the memorandum.