By Seruga Titus
Misinformation is Mwenda’s key asset; does he think no one can rebuttal him? If anyone is looking for doves to run Uganda’s foreign policy they must think that Uganda is an NGO; they must imagine that Uganda is like UNICEF or WHO or Human Rights Watch with no sovereignty to use and extract whatever it may afford and give up what it can’t in the international system using the only currency that is tradable; power. But the real reason Andrew Mwenda makes ignorant analysis that are favorable to Kigali is not because of his ignorance of International relations although he is, but his biased understanding of post-genocide Rwanda.
He was deceived by clever liars, given the best life can offer in Kigali and more to spare. What he knows about a society that is more than seven centuries old is what he was told in those euphoric Kigali visits and Western publishers who were mostly propaganda mouth pieces for the government in Kigali after 1994.
It seems there is no hope that Andrew Mwenda will ever understand Rwanda beyond Interahamwe, genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda’s mostly made up economic miracle, while Rwandans are starving to death as I write this. He wouldn’t know who Bahati Innocent is much less Aimable Karasira both Tutsi genocide survivors one disappeared another in prison for speaking out. He wouldn’t agree that Rwanda’s opposition is totally forbidden and is mainly underground and flickers of its emergence in society through music are dealt with without mercy.
He would agree that Kizito Mihigo indeed killed himself and wouldn’t know the hip hop artist, Jay Polly who recently died in prison was killed.
He belittles President Museveni: His commentary about the entire affair reads like a learning on the Job President with Andrew Mwenda as his star tutor. Other than self indulgence, there is nothing more to read in this statement because President Museveni has a history of realpolitik genius unmatched when compared to many statesmen.
His recent interview and how he explained the Rwandan issue clearly showed a man who understands how to “speak softly but carrying a big stick” for the sole sake of his country’s interests.
He mentioned DRC where Uganda security is threatened by ADF and where, if road projects are all completed Uganda will be opened up to a market which is over 20 times that of Rwanda by purchasing power and 89 times by productive land mass. This might even be the move that makes Uganda a middle income country if we consider jobs from manufacturing and services that will be sold to potentially the entirety of DRC.
It has always been Uganda’s interest to continue to be the most accommodative state to refugees. There are many reasons that I won’t go into now, not least because it’s in allowing Africans to move and live across colonial borders that beats the original balkanization crime committed against us by colonialism and because all of NRM/UPDF historical leadership were exiles.
However, Mwenda is now celebrating a deal that saw thousands of Rwandan refugees killed on Ugandan soil as well as high profile Ugandans. We now know they were killed by ADF which was and is sponsored by Kagame.
While he says no one can prove that Rwanda was the force behind the abductions and killings, the international political arena is not a court of law. National Intelligence organizations gather and process information that is more accurate than the best legal firms in the world, making Intelligence reports currencies of exchange, not court rulings.
Would a Commander in Chief of a given country need to first go to court to declare war on an invading country? Would he or she wait for judgment to be read before he or she begins to defend their country. This is why Andrew Mwenda’s write up is mainly petulant and hollow.
An individual with dubious citizenship and activities that Andrew Mwenda is not privy to becomes the point of reference of discussing international relations practice, diplomacy and foreign policy. One wonders what Dr. Muganga puts on the forms we all fill regarding our citizenship. In international law, the entire situation, a topic for another day, is a mess with a likelihood that the said individual might lose citizenship of Canada or Uganda or both.
Conclusion
Foreign Policy is therefore not a result of intellectual construct and proclivity, but real events that affect power of nation states and how they project it in the international system. President Museveni is doing an excellent job in this area.