Rwanda’s security problems, real and imagined

I belong to a generation heavily populated with second generation Banyarwanda born between 1965 and 1985 to the first wave of Banyarwanda refugees who fled from Rwanda after the Umwami (former King of Rwanda) was deposed. The second generation Banyarwanda grew up in different parts of Uganda, went to school in Uganda and have risen to the cream of society wherever they have been. Infact the 1994 RPF revolution was a major blessing as it allowed many of them to openly identify with their homeland without necessarily having to give up their Ugandan citizenship .
Alas today as we charted our life-paths, after 1994; many of the returnees who have opted to set up roots in Rwanda slowly but surely have found it difficult to retain their Ugandan ties. Security-wise or professionally it’s not feasible. I remember having a conversation with my classmate early this year (born in Kako, attended Namirembe Infants School and St. Mary’s College Kisubi) and he told me he had last come to Uganda in 2016. In 2015 when I visited Kigali we did meet at the downtown mall.  On that trip, I drove my battered Ford Escape to Kigali from Kampala. I only had to buy insurance at the border and switch driving from left to right.  
In 2017 I boarded a bus to “observe” their General Election but it was clear such casual meetings where no longer on the cards. Infact my long planned (Mutabingwa trip) through Kigali in my jalopy of a Ford is not on the cards anymore as casual travel to Rwanda today is not possible.   On December 31, 2019, I hosted a mother to some of my friends to a short visit to Nkumba Busiro. She encouraged me to keep some more cows before she explained that even though they once had very good markets in Rwanda for milk, they are just across the border in Ruhama they could no longer sell milk in Rwanda. I remembered how I drove through Ruhengeri commune shortly after 10 pm and how trucks were transporting milk to Kigali the capital city.
Since that time, unexplained tension between Uganda and Rwanda has soured the mood.  It is an open secret that Uganda has a large doze of migrant workers from Rwanda and up to a certain point, basubuuzi (mostly Baganda) did brisk business in retail trade in Rwanda.  It is also true that these migrants are a big data point in closely fought elections in Uganda. It is also true that in the underbelly of Rwanda’s much vaunted economy, landlessness and poverty now force people across the border to work as share croppers applying their industry growing irish potatoes, conducting intelligence activities and at a certain point just being part of the physical landscape of the metro region. Up to a point these immigrants carried full documentation of the two governments, until tensions began to rise.
At the moment, this laissez faire attitude allowing free inter-exchange of the two populations is minute at best.  Uganda and Rwanda are sons of the same mother. Both have interests in their vast continent of a neighbor DRC . Rwanda’s economy like that of Uganda is fragile. Both are running a secular form of civil-military rule dominated by a singular leadership.
The leaders have lost chemistry and destroyed bridges. It is strange that Kigali for one has been associated with a number of failed leadership bids to undermine Museveni;  Kizza Besigye, Kale Kaihura and others. I view this as little more than sibling rivalry. In their deepest bossoms, a war between Uganda and Rwanda is unlikely. That’s why I read with interest this ridiculous story of wiretaps.  How could it be when our former Foreign Minister Sam Kuteesa’s father is buried on the outskirts of Kigali, and his wife is a Rwandan national? In many families of my close friends, some members decided to stay in Rwanda and others continue to live in Uganda.
Ugandans are famous for “lugambo”,  Radio Katwe, they are at the stage where they announce premature death to drink beer.  I think Rwanda for the wrong reasons is reading too much conspiracy theory into an easy going neighbour who means well. Landlocked, Uganda and Rwanda are losing opportunities of more than a generation investing in rickety wire taps to massage the egoes of a few insecure people in leadership. Massamba Arihehe !.  
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate.
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