Uganda has ordered security agencies and local leaders along its border with Kenya to stop citizens from crossing into Kenya to take part in political or electoral activity, including voter registration, ahead of Kenya’s 2027 General Election.
Kadaga’s directive to border districts
First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community Affairs Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga issued the directive on Wednesday, 7 October 2026, during a briefing in Kampala on the security situation. She named eight districts—Bukwo, Moroto, Amudat, Namisindwa, Busia, Tororo, Namayingo and Buikwe—and told state agencies and local leaders there to monitor movements and ensure Ugandan citizens do not cross into Kenya for electoral purposes.
“We should ensure that Ugandan citizens within those boundaries are not crossing to Kenya or otherwise involving themselves in political or electoral activities,” Kadaga said. She added that anyone found to have acted outside the law should be dealt with according to the law, while cautioning security officers not to disrupt legitimate family, cultural and commercial movement across the long, porous border.
Uganda’s position on Kenya’s electoral process
Kadaga said the Government of Uganda has no role in Kenya’s elections and does not interfere in them. Responsibility for voter eligibility and the integrity of the register, she said, rests with Kenyan institutions.
She also rejected the idea that a person can hold voting allegiance to both countries at once. “You cannot vote both in Kenya and Uganda.
So either you relinquish one and take another. You cannot be both.
You cannot have allegiance to two countries,” she said.
Allegations in the voter-registration investigation
The directive follows a KTN News investigation, also carried by The Standard, aired in late September. The report alleged that some Ugandan nationals along the border were acquiring Kenyan identity documents and registering as voters.
It focused on the Suam area in Trans Nzoia County and claimed that voter-registration materials, including Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits, had been moved across the border. The exposé further alleged that a Directorate of Criminal Investigations officer who intercepted election-related materials was later transferred after being warned off the case.
IEBC and DCI reject the central claims
Kenyan authorities have rejected the central claims. On 27 September the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission said allegations of illegal voter registration, unlawful transfers and the registration of foreigners were unsubstantiated.
It stated that no KIEMS kit had been misplaced, intercepted or moved to unauthorised or foreign locations, and that registration takes place only at gazetted centres. The following day the DCI denied that any of its officers had intercepted a vehicle carrying election materials, questioned occupants, seized equipment, or been transferred in connection with such an investigation, calling the published account misleading.
Political concerns ahead of the 2027 election
The claims have nonetheless become a political issue in Kenya less than a year before the General Election, scheduled for 10 August 2027. Opposition figures, including Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, have repeatedly raised concerns about possible foreign registration in border counties.
Kenyan officials, including Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, have separately defended the right of eligible Kenyan citizens living near or across the border to obtain identity documents and vote.
Cooperation and protection of cross-border ties
Kadaga said Uganda was prepared to cooperate with Kenya through diplomatic, immigration, security and electoral channels to establish the facts. She also urged that political disagreements not be allowed to strain relations between border communities that have long shared family and commercial ties.
No official figures on arrests have been released.