Your source for credible news Issue no 037
August, 2021
In another stealthy operation, Uganda dumps 13 Rwandans at Kagitumba following illegal detention and exposure to Covid-19
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Rwandan family condemns Uganda’s complicity in son’s murder, demands justice Page 2
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What major regional media are too cautious to say: the threat to regional economic integration emanates entirely from Kampala Page 3 OP - ED
Yesterday evening, at 17h20, Ugandan authorities yet again dumped 13 Rwandan nationals at the Kagitumba border including two covid-19 sufferers. The victims include; Sharifa Mutesi, Andre Twagirayesu, Jacques Nkunzurwanda, Josephine Mupenzi, Patrick Mugisha, Marcelline Nyirabyiruka, Beatrice Tuyiringire, Providence Ntirenganya, Josephine Mukangizwenayo, Jose Musengimana, Thomas Niyobuhungiro, Henriette Nyiransabimanana, Page 8 and Laurene Ishimwe. Get a free copy of our e-paper
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Belgian genocide ideologue Reyntjens pairs up with Ugandan propaganda in attacking Rwanda Page 6 OP - ED
Rwanda did not need “Pegasus” to know that Museveni was in bed with Rwanda’s enemies Page 9
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Issue no 037 August 2021
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Update: Uganda dumps 23 innocent Rwandans at Kagitumba Border without following COVID-19 protocols By Patience Kirabo It has come to light four of the 23 Rwandans that Ugandan authorities dumped yesterday morning at the Kagitumba Border had the Delta variant of Covid-19. In what seems to be a premeditated action, the Ugandan military intelligence (CMI) agents that abducted the Rwandans over two months ago, first subjecting them to torture, also exposed them to conditions in Ugandan prisons where there are no precautions against Covid-19 or its variants.
record. The dumped Rwandans, who consisted of 19 men and three women (including one male child), were dumped following illegal detention, moreover incommunicado, in Kyamugorani Prison of Mbarara. The Ugandan authorities stealthily transported them throughout the night – without formal communications with their Rwandan counterparts – and then dumped
them. Rwandan authorities that we talked to off record said there was something very fishy about the way the Ugandans behaved with these latest victims of CMI, as if they (Ugandans) wanted to conceal a crime. The Ugandan authorities covertly organized the deportation in a way to ensure there was no media coverage. The victims, like hundreds of other Rwandans, dumped before them recounted horrific tales of the torture they
Rwandan medical authorities where the 23 dumping victims are being isolated conducted Covid-19 tests after which they discovered that four of them had the Coronavirus Delta variant.
suffered inside the prison in Mbarara where they were detained for over two months with neither trial, nor presentation to any court. Like many countless Rwandan victims of Ugandan security services before them, the 23 were deliberately denied consular visits. They were subjected to torture such as beatings, starvation, and other physical abuse. They showed torture marks, decrying the injustices they suffered – including theft of their money and property by CMI agents. When Uganda and Rwanda signed a memorandum of agreement, such harassment of Rwandan nationals was to be put to an end. Yet Uganda just continues to violate international law, not mentioning the spirit of the East African Community whereby nationals of other state have a right to fair and just treatment, commentators have pointed out many times before.
“This is one of the malicious things one can expect of CMI; deliberately exposing their victims to Covid and then dumping them; basically also exporting a problem to Rwanda,” said a border official that spoke off the
Rwandan family condemns Uganda’s complicity in son’s murder, demands justice By Patience Kirabo The family of the late Bazambanza Munyemana, a Rwandan national who was viciously murdered in Kabale District in Uganda is demanding justice from the country’s authorities. “Watching your lifeless son, gruesomely murdered, and his body burnt, destroys your life. And the only thing left to hope for is justice by holding those responsible to account,” sobs the deceased’s father. Bazambanza’s father recounts that he still hears echoes of the news of his son’s death from villagers who had discovered his lifeless body every single day. It was Sunday, June 06th, 2021 in the afternoon when Bazambanza’s body was discovered near the Rwanda-Uganda border were his assailants had dumped
him, not even caring whether anyone would find him. And that was when his family received the heartbreaking news of their son’s untimely death. The deceased was a great source of support for his aging parents. He would visit them, and give them money and foodstuffs to support them in their old age. Today, the family not only is in great grief and despair following the injustice Ugandan security forces inflicted on their innocent boy, they are more badly off. The Ugandan regime’s continued persecution of Rwandan nationals has caused a lot of emotional problems for innocent families who know nothing about Museveni’s politics and hostile policies against the Government of Rwanda. “It is unbelievable, and very cowardly that they keep targeting powerless, innocent
people like Bazambanza,” said a Rwandan border official that preferred to speak off the record.
and contempt of the East African Community (EAC) laws and protocols.
Those that have closely followed up on the stories and testimonies of Uganda’s torture victims say that it is extra hurtful when the government of Uganda deliberately refuses to call its security organs off, despite the fact laws against such criminal acts are there. “We just hope that one day we will find justice,” a brother of Bazambanza forlornly said.
To the many murder victims’ families, justice is long overdue.
The lawlessness of Ugandan security authorities always is premeditated, ever since they got into bed with RNC and other negative elements bent on destabilizing Rwanda. Commentators on the Rwandan side have remarked how the never-ending harassment, mistreatment, and killings of Banyarwanda in Uganda show bad neighborliness
Bazambanza who was viciously murdered in Kabale-Uganda.
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Issue no 037 August 2021
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In another stealthy operation, Uganda dumps 13 Rwandans at Kagitumba following illegal detention and exposure to Covid-19 By Patience Kirabo Yesterday evening, at 17h20, Ugandan authorities yet again dumped 13 Rwandan nationals at the Kagitumba border including two covid-19 sufferers. The victims include; Sharifa Mutesi, Andre Twagirayesu, Jacques Nkunzurwanda, Josephine Mupenzi, Patrick Mugisha, Marcelline Nyirabyiruka, Beatrice Tuyiringire, Providence Ntirenganya, Josephine Mukangizwenayo, Jose Musengimana, Thomas Niyobuhungiro, Henriette Nyiransabimanana, and Laurene Ishimwe. Of the 13 innocent Rwandans, 7 females, 4 males, and 2 children upon arrival underwent a mandatory covid test, and 2 adults among the group tested positive. The victims were dumped at the border by Uganda with no observation of covid protocols. The dumped victims who tested negative were taken to the Tabagwe treatment center for
further monitoring, and those upon testing positive are quarantined at the Ngarama treatment center. According to the dumped victims, there is an organized search for Banyarwanda and any Kinyarwanda-speaking people in the Mbarara district by the Ugandan police and the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF). The victims were all arbitrarily abducted in what looks like a systematic manhunt by the Ugandan Police. They were illegally detained at Mbarara central police since August 03, 2021. As has been the norm by Uganda’s security agents, the innocent victims were accused of “illegal stay” in Uganda. They suffered mistreatment, starvation, and torture at the hands of their captors. Ugandan authorities have adopted a new style of covertly dumping Rwandan nationals from their illegal incarcerations without prior
communication to Rwandan authorities. A deliberate act of lawlessness and violation of human rights, local and international conventions. Rwanda, through more than 40 notes verbal has protested the continued harassment of her nationals in the neighboring country, citing mutual and open diplomatic correspondence where her nationals have been arrested and brought before courts of law if suspected of any crime. However, Ugandan authorities,
for reasons known to them, have paid a deaf ear towards Kigali’s requests, with hundreds, now in thousands arbitrarily arrested or kidnapped, illegally detained incommunicado. With deliberate denial of trials in court on top of concocted allegations, the Rwandan High Commission is never notified. The dumped group of 13 follows another batch of 23 innocent Rwandans dumped at the Kagitumba border four days ago, on Friday 06 in a covert operation by the Ugandan authorities.
What major regional media are too cautious to say: the threat to regional economic integration emanates entirely from Kampala ruler Museveni that indeed are a major reason why the Kenyan port potentially stands to completely lose out on Rwandan business.
By Alex Muhumuza The eloquent headline in the current issue of The East African newspaper proclaims: “Dar’s turn to eat Mombasa’s lunch as Rwanda looks south for trade across borders.” In the article the newspaper, which always maintain a neutral stance in its reporting, examines the reasons why Rwanda is looking to establish Dar as the port of choice for its exports and imports. Focusing on the recent visit to Rwanda of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu, the paper states that Rwanda and Tanzania have moved to reshape East Africa’s trade and logistics, with Rwanda being the latest country to divert its cargo traffic from Mombasa to Dar. These are facts.
The unvarnished truth is that acts of economic sabotage against Rwanda by the Kampala regime are responsible for Rwanda looking for alternative routes for its trade and commerce.
Ugandan president Museveni, his constant meddling in the affairs of neighboring countries poses a big problem for regional integration in trade. The port of Mombasa for instance has seen loss of business because of that.
Equally factual is that Rwanda has only ever had good relations with Kenya but its only considering moving most of its commerce
from Mombasa because of Ugandan acts. In its article, The East African finds it has to draw attention to the activities of Ugandan
Some of Rwanda’s exports and imports have been by the Tanzanian route, the so-called Central Corridor. But thanks to Museveni’s determination to sabotage Rwandan commerce – and by extension the Rwandan economy – Kenya stands to lose much more Rwandan business, a fact that’s causing a lot of frustration in Nairobi, and Mombasa.
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Issue no 037 August 2021
> From Page 3 Rwanda embarked on finding alternative ways to move its goods while avoiding Ugandan territory when in August 2017, for no reason at all, authorities in Kampala impounded three sealed tankers carrying 78,000 litres of pasteurized milk from Inyange Industries in Kigali enroute to Brookside Diary in Kenya. The tankers were later released, but the milk had already gone bad. The uncouth agents of the Kampala regime just violated free trade laws with their usual sense of impunity. When the following year, in August 2018 Ugandan authorities at Katuna impounded two trucks full of minerals – 40 tonnes of tantalum and tin valued at US$ 750,000 – belonging to a private Rwandan firm and held them for two months on claims that they were transporting the minerals on forged certificates, that was the last straw for Kigali. After the Ugandans released the trucks two months later, there
was no more question of Rwandan trade transiting through Uganda. The claims of forgery were just an absurd excuse to perpetrate Kampala’s continued sabotage of Rwandan business. Museveni’s policy of economic sabotage of Rwanda in fact stems from the Ugandan ruler’s long term obsessions with imposing a puppet government in Kigali, out of a strange sense of entitlement of wanting to rule Rwanda from Kampala. When Rwanda said no to such meddling right from the Nineties, asserting its sovereignty and demanding respect and normal bilateral relations, Museveni embarked on a series of belligerent acts to undermine the Rwandan administration. First this involved cultivating moles in positions of power, such as Kayumba Nyamwasa who, when his traitorous schemes in service to Museveni were discovered, escaped to exile in South Africa via Uganda with the help of Kampala. And while in exile
Nyamwasa would, with the connivance of Kampala security services, form the RNC – a terrorist group whose goal was violent insurrection in Rwanda. Kampala then stepped up its anti-Rwanda hostility, with its security agencies, mainly the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, CMI, with incessant harassment of ordinary Rwandan nationals through arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, and torture on allegations of spying that the Ugandan authorities never substantiated even in a single incidence. It was all part of the connivance with terrorist groups to destabilize Rwanda, and Rwandans. But in the process Museveni proved he not only was anti-trade, he was anti-freedom of movement. So Rwanda issued its advisory to her citizens to avoid crossing to Uganda, which they heeded. Observers remark its high time Kenya realized that with the Ugandan ruler now having taken to meddling into the affairs of
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Kenya, with surreptitious invitations of top Kenyan politicians to secret meetings, no doubt cultivating them as moles. Museveni will bring his habits of sabotage in the process and the sooner Kenya realizes that the better. The Ugandan regime already is a problem for Kenya with its sabotage that’s threatens to cost Mombasa more Rwandan business. Also Uganda already has caused serious economic losses to Kenya after Kampala reneged on constructing its part of the Northern Corridor railway project – the proposed 1500km SGR from Mombasa to Kigali which was expected to be completed by 2018. Work stalled after Kenya built its part of the line from Mombasa to Naivasha, only to realize that Uganda was doing nothing from its side. These only are a few of the facts the rest of the region needs to wake up to.
Rwanda and Ethiopia lead African airline digitization By Our Business Desk Rwandair and Ethiopian are the only African airlines using the IATA TravelPass to screen passenger Covid-19 credentials so far, significantly cutting the time such travelers spend in airport terminals. Globally, more than 100 airlines have so far signed up to the app that started piloting on March 15, with Singapore International Airlines. Adoption has however been slow in Africa where only
Rwandair and Ethiopian are participating in the pilot. Another undisclosed ten African airlines are in discussions with IATA to get on board. TravelPass is a downloadable secure app that was developed by IATA in the wake of mounting restrictions to travel by governments across the globe. Linked to hundreds of accredited test laboratories around the world, it can display a passenger’s Covid-19 vaccination status and PCR test information on mobile
Ethiopian airlines plane
devices. The app directly picks test results from accredited labs, which eliminates paper documents and significantly reduces fraudulent Covid-19 test certificates. The information can then be digitally accessed at different points of the passenger journey, eliminating the hassle involved in the verification of fraud-prone paper-based health certificates.
Rwandair and Ethiopian, the airlines leading the way for African carriers in digital Covid-19 safety measures.
Passengers download the app on their mobile devices to create a digital identity through which they
can pre-book their Covid-19 tests and upload the results together with their travel information. Although governments are yet to agree on a single digital standard for health certification, IATA has been urging governments to support TravelPass. The airline lobby has warned that without quick adoption of digital verification of Passengers Covid-19 status, airports will get clogged if travel rebounds to 2019 levels. On average airport
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Issue no 037 August 2021
> From Page 4 dwell time for passengers could increase five-fold from the current 1.5 hours to could to as long as eight hours. That is because analogue procedures eliminate available digital processing channels such as online check-in. “If we continue using paper-based processes, waiting times would go from 1.5 hours to 8 hours at 2019 levels of traffic,” IATA chief executive Willie Walsh says, warning that is that happens, the industry faces imminent collapse again because a majority of people would simply
give up on traveling. “TravelPass can help verify compliance but governments are yet to accept it,” Walsh says. Adoption has been slow partly because of different digital standards. Only seven governments have so far accepted TravelPass at their entry points while another 56 are in talks with IATA. IATA says the industry is on a slow path to recovery and bookings for the second half of the year are looking up although still way below pre-pandemic levels. The recovery is driven by domestic travel in countries that have
relaxed travel restrictions in tandem with Covid-19 vaccination. “The picture is varied but we are seeing positive indications and we are more positive about the second half as more countries are beginning to relax,” Walsh says citing Canada, which has reopened travel with the USA. Travel with another seven countries will be added starting September. Recovery across Asia is slow because restrictions remain in place with countries such as Australia still maintaining internal
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barriers to inter-state travel. Walsh says Africa is still a challenge because of low levels testing and vaccination for Covid-19. He also described the resurging infections in the United Kingdom as supportive of the theory that vaccines protect people. “Although we are seeing high levels of infections, it is not translating into hospitalization and this is what we expected,” he said.
Museveni using familiar methods to interfere in Kenya’s internal affairs Kenyans are waking up to the real Museveni after it has become clear that he is actively meddling in their internal affairs with the aim of installing someone he can control. Most likely, as is his modus operandi, Museveni had been recruiting Kenyan officials for a while and it has only come to the surface because of Ruto’s high-profile status. This is what he has been doing in Rwanda since the mid-1990s. It was revealed hoe, in 1996, during his visit to Rwanda Museveni tried to recruit the then Rwandan president, Pasteur Bizimungu, to work for his interests at the expense of Rwanda’s. A year later in 1997, Museveni recruited the then Parliamentary speaker, Joseph Sebarenzi; the two kept in close
contact until their plans were unearthed and Sebarenzi had to flee through Uganda where Museveni then facilitated him to continue on into exile in the United States. Again, it didn’t take long when, in 1998 Kayumba Nyamwasa rose to chief of staff, Museveni immediately saw him as someone he could suborn. Museveni entered into and maintained direct contact with Kayumba, violating basic norms of state relations. When their schemes came to light, Kayumba fled to Uganda from where he was facilitated to continue on to South African exile. Museveni’s recruitment of Rwandan officials doesn’t end there. Even while still Rwanda’s chief spy, Patrick Karegeya had been working secretly for Museveni. Like Nyamwasa, Karegeya also fled to Kampala
before relocating to South Africa, with Uganda’s assistance. Museveni recruited even former Brig Gen (BEM) Emmanuel Habyarimana while he was Rwanda’s minister of defense. He too ended up fleeing through Kampala to Europe, a few months after being fired from that sensitive post for his extreme sectarianism. These are Museveni’s high-profile recruitments in his efforts to install a quisling regime in Rwanda. There are probably hundreds more less prominent individuals Museveni recruited at one time or another. These include Rwanda Natioal Congress (RNC) fighters captured in the DRC and repatriated to face justice in Rwandan courts where they have testified to the facilita-
tion they had received while in Kampala before they were transported to RNC training and operational bases in the DRC. On Kampala, his security agents closely fraternise with hundreds of low-level recruits like Sulah Nuwamanya, Prossy Bonabaana of the RNC and others from the genocidal armed groups such as the FDLR, RUD Urunana (the armed wing of Victoire Ingabire’s FDU-Inkingi), and Paul Rusesabagina’s MRCD-FLN terror outfits. This is exactly what Museveni is now tryig to extend to Kenya. The pattern is the same. You just need to substitute Ruto for Bizimungu, and possibly others in the army and security services for Kayumba and Karegeya. Now that Kenyans are learning about Museveni’s methods, they should soon be able to ascertain who these other recruits are. After wreaking havoc in South Sudan, Museveni is prepared to maul Kenya. His mission is simple: There should be no peace in the region, and as long as countries are undeveloped he can manipulate them to serve his interests instead of their own people. In other words, Museveni seems unable to desist from these games of infiltrating and attempting to dictate his neighbors’ internal affairs.
Is Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto (left) about to fall into the trap of being co-opted by Museveni into nefarious schemes?
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OP-ED
Issue no 037 August 2021
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Belgian genocide ideologue Reyntjens pairs up with Ugandan propaganda in attacking Rwanda
Filip Reyntjens a Belgian genocide ideologue and Ugandan Intelligence collaborate on anti-Rwanda propaganda.
By Jean Gatera Filip Reyntjens, a Belgian individual renowned for genocide denial and genocide ideology, has renewed his friendships with the Ugandan regime via the Chieftaincy for Military Intelligence (CMI). This is apparent with Commandonepost, a CMI online propaganda outlet, recently reproducing an article authored by Reyntjens in Flemish. One wonders who went to the effort of translating it into English for Commandonepost, if not Reyntjens who wrote the original piece in a Belgian daily De Standaard. Reyntjens’ article, which CMI is busy disseminating calls for the suspension of aid to Rwanda. Reyntjens and his Ugandan sidekicks however do not disclosing that the old Belgian was a close adviser to former Rwandan president Habyarimana and his defeated regime, and in fact Reyntjens was a consultant on the writing of Habyarimana’s constitution that sought to establish ethic quotas, and that entrenched ethnic discrimination
in Rwanda. Even after genocide ideology was defeated in Rwanda, Reyntjens never lost commitment to the poisonous ideas he helped entrench. After the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, Reyntjens became the preferred “defense expert” for every top genocidaire on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). His article, which Commandonepost reproduces calls for Belgium to suspend its cooperation with Rwanda, claims that Rusesabagina’s arrest was illegal and that his daughter Carine Kanimba was a victim of Pegasus hacking. An observer remarked that these people talk as if their claims about Pegasus negate the fact that Paul Rusesabagina’s own words, captured on video, implicate him in acts of terrorism. “Do they think that repeatedly lying will take away the fact Rusesabagina’s militias attacked and killed people in southwestern Rwanda in 2018, not mentioning burning people’s property and looting?”
others ask. Carine Kanimba, Rusesabagina’s daughter has been making utterances, ever since the Pegasus allegations surfaced in western media, that her phone “was hacked,” which is a lie. No one has come forward with any proof of that. Social media commentators have wondered how, even if that were the case, it would exonerate FLN militias – of which her father was the chief commander – of massacring people in Nyabimata, and elsewhere. “In what way can allegations about Pegasus bring back to life the people killed by her father Rusesabagina’s terrorism, or give them and their families justice?” asked a Facebook account. “The collaboration between Reyntjens and CMI is evident,” observed a media analyst, “The call for aid suspension is based on a hacking hoax narrative heavily circulated by Ugandan Intelligence this week!”
In his article Reyntjens simultaneously collaborated with the Ugandan regime in using RNC propaganda, and in re-producing a discredited BBC genocide-denying documentary. Records also show that Filip Reyntjens traveled frequently to Uganda to coach witnesses in the discredited Bruguière investigation which sought to frame the RPF for the death of Habyarimana. Reyntjens also attacks diplomats that strive to improve their nations’ relations with Rwanda. He once attacked with racial slurs a former Swedish ambassador to Kigali with accusations of “going native.” His beef with her, analysts saw, was because she improved bilateral relations between her country and Rwanda. “The hypocrisy of such a character giving advice on diplomatic relations beggars belief, especially when it’s someone that also turns around to work with the CMI, and its Ugandan regime bosses,” said a Kigali writer.
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OP-ED
Issue no 037 August 2021
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CMI-paid hate monger attempts to justify CMI crimes against innocent Rwandans by exploiting faux Pegasus “scandal” By Jean Gatera Jonah Ruhima – one of the hate-mongers on the payroll of Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho, director of Uganda’s military intelligence, CMI – has outdone even himself in an anti-Rwanda tirade posted this Thursday on Commandonepost, one of their countless propaganda outlets. Jumping onto the “Pegasus controversy” a Western-media-manufactured faux scandal that accuses a number of countries of using the spyware to track phones of targeted individuals, Ruhima basically sentences every Rwanda in Uganda to the torture dungeons of CMI. His premise is that since Western media have accused Rwanda – after producing no proof of course – of being one of the countries that uses Pegasus, then the countless atrocities CMI has inflicted in Rwandans are justified. But which Rwandans does Ruhima mean? It is those Rwandans that refuse to be part of the Museveni-sponsored RNC terrorism operation in Uganda, of which no doubt Ruhima is a part of (on the propaganda front). In Museveni’s Uganda, the most unfortunate thing for a Rwandan – either visiting or resident – is to be approached by agents of Kayumba Nyamwasa’s RNC, who usually work in pairs with CMI operatives, to be asked to join “in the fight against Kagame.” We’ve seen how that works. When RNC so-called “cadres” identify and approach a Rwandan in Uganda to ask him to join them, and if that person then refuses, he is automatically accused of being “a spy for Kigali.” That person will be targeted by RNC agents, who of course are empowered because they work with CMI. That Rwandan, if he or she is a businessperson, will be accused of “taking funds from Kigali to operate in Uganda.” If it is a visitor, they will be accused of entering Uganda “to spy.” In such ways, CMI and RNC agents have violently abducted people and thrown
them into the dungeons at Mbuya, or at CMI Kireka police station, or in any ungazetted place of detention. These are the “spies” that Ruhima, using language normally employed by Interahamwe, now is praising Kandiho of “dealing with” – i.e. illegally detaining and torturing. These, and thousands of other Rwandans that Ugandan security agencies abducted in a period between early 2017 up to First March 2019 (when Rwanda issued an advisory to its citizens against travel to Uganda) – from buses; from relatives’ houses where they would be visiting; from trading centers, and so on – are the target of Ruhima’s slanders. It all begs one question: if Rwanda decided that her citizens weren’t safe in Uganda, and advised them against crossing there, for their own safety, why is Ruhima still whining about the issue of Rwandans in Uganda?” It is because his paymasters, the bosses of the Ugandan regime, have been hit hard by Rwanda’s decision to protect her people against them. He is whining because Rwanda’s market is no longer open to Ugandan business, and that is seriously hurting Ugandan businessmen and women, firms, companies, and so on, that used to thrive due the Rwandan market.
In the words of Rwandan social media commentators, “Museveni and his acolytes thought Rwanda couldn’t exist without them, but they were so mistaken! We can live very well without them. Let them trade with RNC, or FDLR and other terrorists that they are in bed with!” These are the main reasons why Ruhima, a propagandist that firmly believes when you repeat a lie a hundred times it becomes truth, is jumping on the Pegasus none-issue to regurgitate the usual, long discredited CMI lies and fictions. He repeats the smear that the Rwandans whom CMI and RNC agents harassed, jailed incommunicado, denied consular visits, tortured – some to the point of death – are “spies.” Ruhima probably is banking on the forgetfulness of readers, for instance that his paymasters have been asked, time and again, to produce some proof that the Rwandans they so arbitrarily arrest are guilty of any of the accusations – which in addition to “spying” also include “illegal weapons possession”, or “kidnap.” Ruhima thinks people will forget that in not one incident did CMI produce any evidence, let alone proof, of the charges. As lawyers for Rwandan CMI victims like Eron Kiiza, Gawaya Tegulle, and Anthony Odur among others pointed out: “accusations with no
proof are mere concoctions; trumped up charges.” Another thing the CMI peddler of lies thinks his readers won’t recall is that among the thousands of Rwandans they’ve abducted, there are fathers visiting kids at school, schoolboys and schoolgirls pulled off buses, mothers whose babies were snatched from them, businessmen merely crossing through Uganda to other countries, and so on. In what way are these people “spies”? Ruhima in his latest article uses hate speech to encourage Kandiho to inflict even more atrocities against Rwandans. He writes: “our security and intelligence services should therefore step up more crackdown against these agents whom Paul Kagame prides on until Uganda is completely too difficult for them to operate.” Observers remark that it is not surprising Ruhima usually uses words similar to hate speech in Rwanda in 94. After all Museveni long ago turned Uganda into a safe haven, not only for all sorts of negative anti-Rwanda groups but also for hundreds of genocide suspects wanted in Rwanda for justice. Ruhima pretty much is their voice in Kampala.
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OP-ED
Issue no 037 August 2021
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Uganda may feign obsession with Pegasus, but Rwanda has never needed any spyware to expose Kampala skullduggery, Part II By Alex Muhumuza Last week this news website reminded readers of a number of incidents whereby Rwanda never had any need for spyware like Pegasus to get to know of Uganda’s hand behind nefarious dealings whose goal is to destabilize the security of Rwanda. But that only was a small sample of the skullduggery that the Ugandan ruler and his security organs, mainly the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), have authored in their anti-Rwanda hostility. When Uganda’s propaganda machine – together with its allies all over the world – jumped onto the Pegasus bandwagon it counted on audiences being less familiar with the issues, to pretend that everything Rwanda knows about the Museveni regime’s covert activities was because of Pegasus. Rwanda has been emphatic that it never used the spyware – because it’s very expensive and because Rwanda doesn’t possess the technical capacity to operate it. But the hullaballoo in Ugandan propaganda media raised a few old questions. Even if indeed Rwanda were to use the spyware, why this obsessive fear, even paranoia, about spying that always emanates from Kampala? And why do we never hear any allegations in Kigali about Ugandan spying? It is the surest tell tale sign that only one party is guilty of something, or a lot of somethings. In any case, like we showed last week, however much they write and talk about Pegasus, the Kampala regime’s problem does not lie in any spyware. It lies in its own acts geared at destabilizing a neighbor. Museveni’s own obsessions with Rwanda, which occurred long before anything called Pegasus, are the issue. In addition to the number of incidents we reminded readers about last week, one could also highlight the case in December 2017 when RNC recruits were intercepted at Kikagati border
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has been perpetrating a policy of hostility against Rwanda that has involved sponsorship of various armed militias or terror groups targeting Rwanda, not mentioning various acts of economic sabotage. Rwanda has never needed Pegasus to uncover, and expose any of that.
between Uganda and Tanzania. The 46 recruits, young Rwandans from refugee camps that CMI had facilitated with forged Ugandan travel papers, gave themselves away because none spoke a Ugandan language. The border authorities became very suspicious and, subjecting the papers to closer scrutiny, discovered they were forgeries. Immigration alerted border police who arrested them. That was at a time Uganda police had not yet been coopted into the regime’s anti-Rwanda hostility. It was later established the youths were enroute to RNC training camps in Minembwe, eastern DRC. No spyware was needed to expose the hand of Museveni’s security services in this aggravated act of aggression against Rwanda. In case anyone was under any doubts of Museveni’s central role as a godfather of a coalition of regional militia groups – of which RNC was the main one – bent on destabilizing Rwanda, a UN report in December 2018 banished those doubts. The United Nations Group of Experts confirmed that Uganda was a central, coordinating corridor for the “P5” armed coalition based in DRC. It was an unholy coalition that, with RNC as the senior partner, also
consisted of terror organizations like FDLR, RUD-Urunana, FLN and others. One would wonder how Museveni’s propagandists think their talk of “Pegasus” can exonerate their master of such overt aggressions. Or of provocations that include Museveni’s openly hobnobbing with leaders of these terrorist groups, doing business with the likes of RNC chief financier Tribert Rujugiro, facilitating FDLR bigwigs with travel documents; or inviting the likes of RNC “commissioner of diplomacy Charlotte Mukankusi over at State House – in full view of everyone – only to try to deny they met! However, like we’ve shown in the past, the Ugandan aggressions haven’t been limited to working with groups bent on exporting violence to Rwanda. Kampala has also perpetrated numerous acts of economic sabotage against Rwanda. An example occurred in August 2017 when three sealed tankers carrying 78,000 litres of pasteurized milk from Inyange Industries in Rwanda enroute to Brookside Diary in Nairobi were intercepted in Uganda. Ugandan authorities held the milk for several days, giving no reasons why. The tankers were later released but the milk had already gone bad.
There was absolutely no reason going by free trade laws for the Ugandans to have impeded that milk. Ugandan authorities had done the same with Rwandan minerals crossing the country enroute to Mombasa, though fortunately for the exporters, minerals do not go bad like milk. It was the same with Kampala’s refusal to grant Fifth Freedom Rights to Rwandair to pick up passengers from Entebbe to Europe, even though it grants the same rights to European airlines. One of the more egregious examples of this kind of sabotage; one that flies into the face of regional cooperation was Kampala’s refusal a few years back to construct electric transmission lines for Rwanda to access cheaper electricity from Kenya and Ethiopia through Uganda. Even though Rwanda was paying for construction of the pylons. That initiative, which also deprived Ethiopia and Kenya of good revenue from exportation of power, died a natural death just because Museveni was bent on sabotage. Rwanda has never had need of any spyware to expose all this, and other countless malevolent incidents authored by Kampala.
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OP-ED
Issue no 037 August 2021
9
Rwanda did not need “Pegasus” to know that Museveni was in bed with Rwanda’s enemies By Alex Muhumuza To see the uproar of anti-Rwanda slanders by Museveni regime propagandists in the wake of the faux Pegasus spyware scandal, you again have to shake your head in wonder at these people’s brazenness. We saw how all of their misinformation websites: Commandonepost, Softpower, Chimpreports, The New Vision newspaper, Facebook accounts with names like “Rpf Gakwerere”, or social media accounts those run by the likes of Sulah Nuwamanya, their Twitter accounts, and everyone allied to Kampala were piling upon Rwanda for alleged usage of the Pegasus spyware. But Rwanda has never had any need of Pegasus to expose the countless incidents of Kampala’s aggressions against Rwanda; of its colluding with negative, anti-Rwanda elements everywhere and in every way; of economic sabotage; of sabotage of regional development initiatives by which Rwanda as a country would benefit. Let’s go back to the beginnings of RNC, when the traitorous Kayumba Nyamwasa decided to go into self-imposed exile, but in the pocket of Museveni. Rwanda had no need of Pegasus to learn that on February 2010 a delegation from Kampala, led by Gen. Salim Saleh and Gen. Kale Kayihura, the then IGP, came to pick Nyamwasa after he used a porous border crossing, a panya route, to enter Uganda. This among other things confirmed that Nyamwasa had been Museveni’s man all along in Kigali, even as he had held such high offices as army commander. Nyamwasa was a fifth columnist working against the interests of his own country, and as part of Museveni’s plot to install a puppet ruler in Kigali. When that failed and Nyamwasa got exposed, hence fleeing to Uganda, it was only to head to South Africa – with the assistance of Uganda of course – from where he and Patrick Karegeya later formed RNC, in
Museveni through a bunch of proxy groups facilitated by Ugandan military intelligence, CMI (under Maj. Gen. Kandiho) have tried to destabilize Rwanda for long. Despite the misinformation of Museveni’s propaganda machine, Kigali never needed any sophisticated spyware to expose his machinations.
December 2010, still with the involvement of Uganda. So, how do the Kampala regime propagandist spin that? Can they pretend that Rwanda was using “Pegasus” back then, eleven years ago? Also, a few years later in 2013 one Cpl. Joseph Nshimiyimana aka Camarade of FDLR testified in court that in a meeting at Mamba Point Bar in Kampala, Lt. Joel Mutabazi of RNC and Col. Jean Marie of FDLR planned terror operations to disrupt the September 2013 parliamentary elections in Rwanda, and disrupt Christmas and New Year festivities. As a result of that plotting terrorists detonated a grenade in the Kicukiro market that killed two people. No spyware was required to implicate Mutabazi. His computer – which he was with when Uganda Police (before it too was co-opted into anti-Rwanda operations) handed him to Rwanda in a bilateral exchange – implicated
him. The evidence showed Mutabazi had coordinated the grenade attack from across the border, in Kabale. Also, Mutabazi’s computer contained detailed plans for assassinations of senior Rwandan government officials, with information implicating the authorities in Kampala in that plot. No spyware was ever used in finding out these things. Rwanda has said it has no use for the Pegasus spyware because, it said, the technology is very expensive, and secondly Kigali possesses no technical ability to utilize it. The most public demonstration that Rwanda needs no sophisticated spyware to implicate Uganda in egregious acts of aggression came after the October 2019 attack in Kinigi by RUD-Urunana terrorists who operated in the borderlands straddling Uganda, DRC, and Rwanda.
In that attack, the terrorists killed 14 innocent people before security forces killed 19 of them and captured five alive. These would reveal that the attack had been coordinated by Ugandan regional cooperation minister Philemon Mateke. Evidence collected on the scene, namely phone handsets, revealed a Ugandan number had been in touch with the commander of the terrorists, “Gavana”, before and during the attack. A simple call to the number revealed it belonged to Mateke – the man who among other things Museveni long ago tasked with “harmonizing” the activities of his various proxy terrorist groups against Rwanda. Kigali has never required anything like Pegasus to get to the bottom of any of the Ugandan ruler’s machinations, often perpetrated through his Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, CMI, headed by Maj. Gen. Abel Kandiho. Stay tuned for more details on this issue.
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OP-ED
Issue no 037 August 2021
10
The harrowing tales of the sex-trafficking business in Uganda; a racket controlled by the powerful By Alex Muhumuza
ing business.
For long, Ugandans have been hearing stories of a human trafficking racket in the country; a dirty business controlled by very powerful people. What many may not have been fully familiar with are the sordid details behind this criminal business that exploits the most vulnerable. The most lucrative aspect of it is the sex trafficking, which our correspondent in Uganda recently went undercover to investigate.
“Even for 30,000 shillings you can entice a Mugisu girl to leave her parents’ home,” John said. It is the same with the Samia girls, many who already are “expert in bedroom matters” when as young as 14, because of ‘friendships’ with cross-border truck drivers, John said sadly. He added: “this is what Uganda has become; people’s children getting sold so cheaply, some never to be seen again.”
We bring you the details in a series of articles beginning this week. The problem of human trafficking has become endemic in Uganda, with the sex trafficking of young Ugandan girls to destinations in the Middle East – and further afield to countries like Malaysia – said to be the most lucrative aspect of the racket. According to sources the girls are trafficked, some as young as 15, being most in demand by rich old men in some Arab states. They are facilitated to get travel documents with false dates of birth so as not to raise suspicion. They are lured from the poorest families, most times through false advertisement in some state media, and sometimes by unscrupulous “agents” of the so-called “recruitment companies.” Human rights defenders in Uganda remark that those running the racket are so powerful they monopolize the recruitment firms. These firms are the ones with the ability to provide passports, and connections to “markets.” “Of course only groups with strong links to state power have the means, the influence, and the clout to engage in human trafficking,” said a human rights activist that we cannot name to preserve their safety. It is no secret who the big fish of the business are, being the biggest, bold face names in Uganda. There is first son Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba. There is his uncle Gen. Salim Saleh. There is Saleh’s wife Jovia, and Kellen Kayonga, sister
After the Pegasus brouhaha started, the propaganda machine of Museveni – whose misinformation outlets are controlled by CMI’s Maj. Gen. Kandiho – went into overdrive, partnered by overseas propagandists for Rusesabagina, and RNC through mouthpiece Himbara.
to Jovia. There is Odrek Rwabwogo, partnered by his wife Patience; to mention only a few. “They are the kingpins of human trafficking for which they enjoy full impunity,” many remark. Furthermore, anyone that gets into human trafficking can only do so in partnership with people like them. Any individual that dares otherwise will find himself very quickly in a CMI dungeon, our source added. Dirty sex trafficking business Muhoozi owns the Normandy Company and his partner in this group is Maj. Gen. Leo Kyanda, the joint chief of staff of the Ugandan military. Gen. Saleh owns Premier Recruitment, in partnership with city tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia. Saleh also owns Saracen, which in addition to the sex slave trade specializes in sending sons of poor Ugandans to face the bullets of anti-American armed groups in places like Iraq, as the first line of defense for American security firms there. Jovia Saleh and her sister Kellen Kayonga are partners in a company called Middle East Consultants, which operates from behind a commercial building in Bukoto and which is behind shocking scandals. These women are said to be so greedy for money that some of their “sub-contractors” have been found training girl children to sleep with dogs. “No doubt police has pretended to arrest Ndagire the woman in Muyenga that was
training the girls in bestiality during lockdown; but that is just for PR purposes to show that ‘the law is cracking down,’” the rights activist said. “But nothing will happen to her; they will release her after the scandal has been forgotten and she will go back to the same business.” Our correspondent seeks out the sources of trafficked girls Our correspondent in Uganda says that the girls are sourced not only from Kampala and environs, but also from all over the country. To get more details he travelled as far away as Mbale, Malaba and Busia in eastern Uganda. That’s because, it is said, the Samia and Bagisu women are the most easily tricked by agents of the trafficking companies. Our correspondent was informed that with biting household poverty in Uganda hitting regions like eastern hard, it is easier to get girls from there. The Virunga correspondent also learnt that Basamya and Bagisu girls “are the easiest and cheapest to lure away.” How true is this? Our man first scouted the Namatala area of Mbale, one of the many slum areas of the town. He won the trust of a local moneychanger that plies his trade at the Malaba border by pretending he worked with one of the recruitment firms in Kampala. Buying the moneychanger, known only as “John”, a beer, he turned out to be quite knowledgeable about the traffick-
Trafficking victims speak To talk to a trafficking victim is to listen to harrowing tales. Their journey begins after they get deceived that they are “going for good jobs in the Middle East” (so good supposedly that in some cases their parents will sell their last goat to raise the “commission fee” for the agents). The deception works very easily with the sky-high youth unemployment in Uganda. In Kampala, a graduate of Makerere University will very gladly work as a boda boda. Very many such desperate young men and women can be fooled into anything. A recruitment firm will promise a young girl that they’ve found her a job in the hospitality sector. But upon reaching the final destination, say Jordan, the girl instead finds herself in some tough Arab’s house, “doing personal services to him and his friends!” A victim that one time was in the state of Jordan doing such forced prostitution for three years before getting rescued talked to this writer, tears flowing down her cheeks. She says they did unspeakable things to her. Her boss took away her passport and locked her in a basement. Then she would be forced to sleep with any of his “visitors”, probably for a fee to him. If she became sick, he beat her. If she became tired, he kicked her. One time he broke two of her teeth. Another time the man almost broke her leg. In the second installment of this series we bring you more details of victims like her.
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