Kabale court orders deportation of 57 Rwandans, Congolese convicted of illegal entry

The Kabale chief magistrate’s court in western Uganda on Wednesday sentenced to a caution 47 Rwandans and 10 Congolese nationals after they pleaded guilty to charges of illegal entry.

The Kabale grade one magistrate, Mr Isaac Rukundo sentenced the suspects after they all pleaded guilty to the offence and asked for pardon.

The magistrate also asked the police to liaise with the immigration officers to have the convicts deported to their respective countries.

The state prosecutor, Mr Anthony Wamibu told court that the accused persons were arrested in Kabale town on Jan 4, 2021 as they tried to travel to the capital, Kampala in different buses without travel documents.

“The accused persons should be deported to their home countries because of the Coronavirus crisis and also the fact that there is an ongoing electoral process in Uganda. They may be a security threat given the fact that most of them are youths aged below 30,” Mr Wamibu said.

Some of the convicted foreigners said they were travelling to Kampala to look for casual employment.

“We crossed to Uganda through the porous border points because our government in Rwanda stopped us from crossing to Uganda officially. Now that the court has ordered for our deportation, we are likely going to be reprimanded by the Rwandan government officials for the fact that we contravened the guidelines,” one of the Rwandan national said.

In March 2019, Rwanda closed its borders with Uganda and advised its citizens from entering a “hostile Uganda”.

Since then several Ugandans entering Rwanda through porous border points have either been arrested or shot dead.