Uganda has instructed security agencies in eight districts along its border with Kenya to stop Ugandan citizens from crossing over to take part in Kenya’s voter registration, and to arrest those who do.

First Deputy Prime Minister Rebecca Kadaga, who doubles as minister for East African Community Affairs, announced the directive. She said Kampala wished to disassociate itself from reports that some of its citizens had been crossing the frontier to register for Kenya’s 2027 General Election.

Such conduct, Kadaga said, offends national sovereignty and the principle that neighbouring states should not meddle in each other’s democratic affairs. She named the districts covered by the instruction as Obuko, Moroto, Amodat, Namisindwa, Wijiri, Busia, Namengo and Tororo, and told local leaders to work with the security agencies.

The minister also rejected the suggestion that people can hold Ugandan and Kenyan citizenship at the same time. Under the East African Community framework, she argued, dual citizenship of that kind does not exist, and a person who takes up one nationality must give up the other.

The Ugandan position lands amid accusations by political leaders in western Kenya that the Kenyan government has been facilitating the entry of voters from Uganda to tilt the outcome of the 2027 General Election. Kadaga conceded that the media reports behind those claims have not been verified, but said her government saw reason to respond and to condemn the practice should it be happening.

No Kenyan official statement on the Ugandan directive was available in the material reviewed. The claims by the western Kenya leaders, and the reports of cross-border registration they rest on, remain unverified, a point Kadaga herself acknowledged.

The voter registration exercise is ongoing, and Uganda and Kenya share a long border whose busiest crossings include Busia and Tororo.