According to the director of the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control in Uganda, Apollo Kasiita-Gowa, President Yoweri Museveni asked technocrats from both countries to speed up the process.
At the end of last year, President Museveni asked the Ugandan authorities to stop asking Congolese citizens to enter the country for visas.
“Crossing in East Africa should be free. You pay for a visa when you go to America or Europe, but a visa for the Democratic Republic of the Congo?! This is rubbish. If that is the case, I removed it,” Museveni said at a meeting in Mpondwe in December 2022, following the commissioning of the Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Border Export Zone and Mpondwe One Stop Border Post in Kasese district.
Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as members of the Great Lakes Economic Community (CEPGL), have dropped visa requirements for citizens of the three countries and also use IDs, a decision that has facilitated travel and trade.
The East African Community has eliminated the visa requirement, facilitating the free movement of people in South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Kenya.
