Ugandan national shot by Rwandan soldiers laid to rest

The local and church leaders in Kamwezi Sub County Rukiga District have warned Ugandans in the area against smuggling food items and manufactured goods to Rwanda.
The LCIII Kamwezi Sub County, Mr Tedson Niwagaba, sounded the warning on Tuesday afternoon at the burial ceremony of Alex Nyesiga, a Ugandan that was last week shot by the Rwandan security operatives in anti-smuggling mission on the Ugandan side about 50 metres away from the borderline.

Nyesiga was shot dead alongside a Rwandan businessman John Batista Kyerengye. The shooting took place at Habusavu trading centre, located at the border of Rwanda and Uganda.
“Stop smuggling food items and manufactured goods from Uganda to Rwanda if you still value your lives. Let the Rwandan nationals come for them. The shooting and killing of Alex Nyesiga and John Batista Kyerengye [a Rwandan national] on the Ugandan side indicates that Rwanda security operatives have proved to be hostile to you,” Niwagaba said.

He added, “Some of you believe that there is a lot of profit in smuggling goods to Rwanda because the Rwandans pay you good money but remember your lives are more expensive than those profits.”
The lay leader at Runoni Church of Uganda, Mr Alex Kyarimpa, appealed to the local traders to stop behaving like a caterpillar that was advised to get out of the maize cob and later ended up losing its life after the maize cob was cooked.

The LCV councillor for Maziba Sub County, a neighbouring Sub County in Kabale District, Mr Elson Twinamatsiko also warned Ugandans against frequenting Rwanda because the situation has proved to be fragile.
“There were many people from the neighbouring Kabale District who wanted to come and attend this burial ceremony but they feared arrests because the short cut route to this place passes through Rwanda. For now, stop crossing into Rwanda for any activity until the situation has normalised,” Mr Twinamatsiko said.
The local leaders thanked the Ugandan security personnel for preserving the scene of crime and their quick response to evacuate the bodies of the deceased persons.

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“If they claim that the offence was committed on that Rwandan side, why didn’t they present the bodies of the deceased persons? We were lucky that after shooting and killing these innocent civilians and impounding the motorcycle which the smugglers were travelling on, they forgot that the bodies remained on the Ugandan side where they were shot from. They managed to impound the motorcycle because after shooting and killing the deceased persons, all those that had gathered to stop them from impounding it fled for their lives,” Mr Niwagaba said.

The shooting
On Friday last week at around 8pm, Kyerengye and Nyesiga were shot dead by the Rwandan security personnel at Habusavu trading center as the soldier tried to arrest the former who was a motorcycle carrying a bale of second-hand clothes. The deceased were among the locals who tried to stop the Rwandan security operatives from arresting Kyerengye or impounding the motorcycle that was already parked on the Ugandan side of the border.
On Monday the Rukiga district woman Member of parliament Ms Kamusiime Muhwezi led a delegation of foreign envoys and local leaders from the Kabale district to hand over the body of Kyerengye and later handed over the body of Nyesiga to the relatives in Nyakabungo village in Kamwezi sub county Rukiga District.

Mr Medard Namureba, the father to Nyesiga thanked President Museveni for a condolence message of Shs10m that was delivered by Ms Muhwezi and prayed that the killers should be brought to book and charged in accordance with the international laws.
Nyesiga is survived by four children, two boys and two girls. The eldest daughter is in primary four while the youngest is not yet in school.