In a rare move Uganda’s oldest opposition political party, the Democratic Party (DP) has backed the national army (Uganda Peoples Defence Forces) to take over the national identity cards project.

The ministry of Defence recently expressed interest in taking over the national identity cards projects following the botched deal in which  the Government had contracted Muhlbauer Technology, a German firm, at 64.2m Euros (about sh230.9b) to supply technology and other related services for the National Security Information System, which was being handled under the internal affairs ministry.

The army leadership claims that it has all the necessary capacity to be in charge of capturing data of Ugandans and processing their identity cards.

The spokesperson of DP, Kenneth Kakande says that the army takeover of the identity cards project is a good idea as long as there is accountability and transparency.

Muhlbauer Technology was contracted to print 34 million cards but it managed only to produce 400 cards. Out of the 400 cards, it was only President Museveni, First Lady Janet Kataha Museveni, and Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi who got their cards.