How uproar over return of Kavuya’s family bailed out stranded citizens

On Sunday last week, Mr Patrick Mugoya, the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Affairs ministry, wrote to all heads of Ugandan missions abroad asking for updated information on citizens stranded due to Covid-19 pandemic.
His letter was urgent, made complete with a screaming red stamp. It gave the missions until noon of Wednesday, May 13, to send the list by email to the headquarters in Kampala.
“The minister has directed that you verify and submit updated information on Ugandans who are stranded in your area of accreditation as a result of travel restrictions owing to Covid-19 pandemic,” Mr Mugoya wrote.

This was an unusual change from the known government position that Ugandans stranded abroad stay wherever they were until after travel restrictions were eased.
The Public Health (Prohibition of Entry into Uganda) Order 2020, gazetted on March 21, prohibits entry to all persons with two exceptions; UN humanitarian organisations staff, and cargo trucks and aircraft.
“The ministry,” a source speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals said, “was forced by two families whose loved ones needed to return home from Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).”

Days before Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa’s letters, businessman Ben Kavuya had used his connection to have his wife Barbara, daughter Blanche Kibaju and grandson Isaiah Tiba Byabashaija, approved to travel back home against the restrictions that has seen Entebbe International Airport shut off to passenger flights since March 21.
On Wednesday, May 13, the same day consular officers were expected to have sent in a list of stranded Ugandans, Mr Kutesa authorised the Kavuyas to be allowed to board a flight to Entebbe.

The Ethiopian Airlines flight carrying the Kavuyas is scheduled to touch down at Entebbe airport at 2am tomorrow. Among the first persons who will climb down the flight of steps of the aircraft will be a member of the First Family.
“Nobody wants to talk about that letter,” a foreign mission official told this newspaper. “The headed paper suggests that it was drafted from the minister’s personal office. That explains why it was leaked from Ethiopian side and it probably follows an order from a higher office to the minister.”

Blessing in disguise
Kavuya could not commit himself on the development that government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo termed as “an opportunity that presented itself,” but media reports indicate that his family had been stranded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while rerouting from Florida, USA. Thousands of Ugandans were caught abroad when travel restrictions were placed as nations across the globe locked down to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The Covid-19 has so far infected 4.5 million people and killed more than 300,000. Uganda has registered 203 cases, including 43 on Friday – the highest one-day numbers since March 20 when a traveler from Dubai, UAE tested positive.
Like with the first case, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the Health minister, said almost all recent cases are of those imported by transnational truck drivers.
At a time when citizens locked down for nearly two months appear to be relatively safe and the virus is being imported from across the borders, the government’s decision appeared unusual.

Mr Mugoya told Sunday Monitor that the consular offices registered 2,340 stranded citizens in their three-day urgent exercise.
“I am not privy to the full list… I can tell you though that since that [Kutesa] letter leaked, I have received several new emails from people asking to register for repatriation. The same stampede is probably taking place in all our Missions,” a consular officer said.
Mr Mugoya limited the registration of stranded citizens to those who have requested to be allowed to return home who are on short visa, locked down in transit, students who completed studies, or victims of redundancies due to Covid-19-related economic freeze.

Sunday Monitor was unable to ascertain how many Ugandans are stranded in Ethiopia and need repatriation but at least two dozen Ugandans travelling from the US were stranded at Bole International Airport in Ethiopia for several days, forcing some to take flights back to the US before it closed its borders.

Others, this paper understands, were taken in by humanitarian agencies.
“I came here for a brief business trip and on March 22, but the day I was to return, the President directed the airport to closed by midnight,” said Denis Wodulo, one of the 10 Ugandans on the list government added to the Kavuyas’ travelling party.
“My flight to Entebbe was set to depart from Addis by 11pm that day, we were to land at 1am – one hour after the deadline. So at the last minute, the airline had to cancel the flight because they would not be allowed to land.”

Mr Wodulo, who has been living in a hotel near the airport, received a call from a consular officer on Friday morning, just hours before government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo released a statement complementing Kutesa’s letter.
Another Ugandan among the 10 travelling home said officials called Friday morning asking for passport numbers they had submitted three weeks earlier.
“It seems like it was a rush job. It sounded like there was a lot of pressure so we had to do it (submit passport detail) again,” said the citizen, who requested not to be named.

The ‘rushed’ movement followed Kutesa’s leaked letter that courted public backlash over what many saw as selective application of the law.
“Isn’t Entebbe Airport closed to passenger flights?” tweeted Opposition leader Kizza Besigye. “How do Ugandans get the exemption to fly back home? The cries of Ugandans banished abroad are deafening.”
Prossy Aliba, a concerned citizen, said the law gazetted on March 21 does not give permission to any minister to provide special dispensations to individuals to come into the country.

The US has confirmed nearly 1.5 million cases with more than 88,000 dead.
Responding to the backlash, government turned to Mr Mugoya’s data from foreign missions. Tweeting a statement that listed the additional 10 citizens to hitchhike the Ethiopian Airlines flight, Opondo said: “Only weeks ago they (Ugandans) demanded government repatriates citizens stranded abroad. Today, they condemn minister Kutesa. On that Ethiopian plane, there will be 10 other Ugandans. It is an organised process to return them.”

Health ministry publicist Emmanuel Ainebyoona said they had communicated the health guidelines to all the passengers who will be quarantined for 14 days.
But Kavuya, according to Dr Henry Mwebesa, the director general of health services, on Monday kicked off preparation to welcome back his family with a request to allow him isolate them at Legacy Courts in Bugolobi.
The businessman owns the facility at which his returning wife is a director.
Hours after the arrival at Entebbe, Cabinet will sit and, according to sources privy to the matter, the Ministry of Health will continue to push back against repatriation of Ugandans caught in Covid-19 pandemic global lockdown. The government, despite President Museveni’s stance, appears to have already caved in.

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