By Godwin Agaba
Kigali’s acidic tabloids put Luanda MoU at risk and so, henpecking neighbors, Uganda and Rwanda have signed a pact to restore relations which had soured to unprecedented levels!
The scene in Luanda, Angola, where President Yoweri Museveni and his counterpart, Paul Kagame sealed the deal was not as cheerful as it could have been. The underlying factor is the overbearing pessimism and unease coupled with acts that could directly hurt chances of the pact standing.
Some knowledgeable circles have given the Luanda-brokered Memorandum of Understanding a short leased in life.
First of all, if there was mental readiness and hearty willingness, it could have been signed in one of the two rivaling capitals to signify a homecoming spirit to encourage citizens to start crisscrossing normally between the two countries. Since Rwanda shut its border in February, people have not mingled as they have done since time immemorial and they needed reassurance that the road is clear for all.
Most important, however, and a highly probable setback to watch closely is that as the two principals were signing the MoU, Kigali tabloids were having a busy day accusing the Uganda establishment of, of all things, the alleged murder of a nobody who is known to have died of natural causes.
The death of Johnson Nunu, a Ntungamo-based businessman, was politicised at a time the Rwandan leadership must have known that a semblance of “peace” was in the works with an MoU in the offing.
Nunu, a Ugandan, died last week according to family. He had diabetes which turned into liver cancer. At his son’s wedding on 3rd August, he made his speech with no sign of pain or feebleness. “He looked well, was talking and walking until the time he passed on yesterday. He was in Kampala to see his doctors at the time”,according to a family source.
But surprisingly, Rwanda tabloids are running stories alleging that Nunu died as a result of torture by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), Uganda’s security organ which has been vital in countering Rwanda’s advances and which is extremely detested in Kigali. Anything negative that can be pinned on CMI sells in Kigali, apparently.
I have known Nunu for the last four decades; we are both from Mpororo (Ntungamo). In 2017, he was briefly detained on unspecified charges and released and went back to look after his cows in Mpororo. How his death makes headlines in Kigali is a shock. Does it suggest a connection with them that the rest of us are not aware of? Is it that those who are questioned by Ugandan authorities can never die and if they do, all other causations do not apply? Is that the standard in Kigali?
The Kigali propagandists claim that the “CMI torture” theory was supplied by a family member, but they don’t name the source. They claim Nunu was buried on Tuesday but they don’t name the place. In actual fact, he was buried in Kaina, Rwentobo in Ntungamo (which is in Uganda) because he was Ugandan-not Rwandan. Why would Rwandans be so interested in his death and accuse Ugandan authorities of killing him at a time the world is supposed to believe that normal relations are being restored? Did they have access to the postmortem report? How and why so fast?
What interest did Kigali have in a simple man’s death? The MoU will not work if propagandists are not tamed. They grab every story, every opportunity and use it to lie, to sell their agenda. Kigali has persistently sponsored tabloids to scandalise Uganda’s leadership, with President Museveni taking the greatest share of the hit. The Ugandan side has only, at most, responded to unnerving allegations but hasn’t generated similar underbelly attacks.
As the MoU stands, the conditions stipulated can easily be violated, leading to a point of no return in relations. Kigali’s tabloids are the biggest risk factor. If they cannot stop disturbing the peace of the dead and the privacy of the bereaved family, they will not permit peace to prevail among the living.
