Uganda: Court orders govt to issue citizenship to people of Somali origin
Published: 21/Mar/2022
Source: The Observer (Kampala)
The High court in Kampala has ordered the Immigration office to give people of Somali origin Ugandan citizenship as long as they fulfil the requirements of the law.
The judgment issued through email by justice Musa Ssekaana arises from a case filed in 2019 by seven members of the Somali Community in Uganda and a civil society organization who had been denied citizenship by Ugandan authorities.
The members are; Abdu Abucar Hussein, Abdullah Ahmed Shiek, Yahaya Yusuf, Hirsi Mohamed, Abdinassir Hussein Shire, Mohamed Abduwel Abdulla, Ahmed Noor Osman and Multiracial Community Uganda (MCU) Ltd. The aggrieved people were born in Uganda and to Ugandan parents, who, they said had lived in Uganda all their lives.
The petitioners sued government after the Immigration office declined to give them citizenship, saying that they can only acquire citizenship once they have been naturalized into the community. The petitioners however declined, arguing that they were not refugees to be naturalized but rather citizens by birth since they were born in Uganda.
Read further: https://observer.ug/news/headlines/73088-court-orders-govt-to-issue-citizenship-to-people-of-somali-origin