KABALE – Ugandan officials on Monday, June 8, 2020 told off their Rwandan counterparts over continued shooting dead of Ugandans caught illegally crossing into Rwanda.
While receiving the body of Sidini Muhereza, 35, a Ugandan businessman that was last Monday last week shot dead as he allegedly smuggled match boxes into Rwanda, Ugandan officials, including Kabale Resident District Commissioner Darius Nandinda and Kabale District chairman Patrick Besigye Keihwa, told Rwandan officials led by the Mayor for Burera district in Rwanda, Ms Marie Chantel Uwanyirigira, that shooting dead of people is not the solution to conflict.
“If every person that committed crime was shot dead, the world would be in problems. It is our appeal that Rwandan security officials use other means of punishing Ugandans that commit crime in their country. In the spirit of the East African Community, killing illegal entrants is bad,” Mr Nandinda said.
“We are soon handing over to you 19 Rwandans that have been on remand in Ndorwa government prison in Kabale because president Museveni pardoned them. They will tell you that during their stay in the government prisons they were being fed well. Shooting and killing a Uganda because he/she has illegally entered your country is inhuman,” Mr Besigye said.
In response, Ms Uwanyirigira said that the shooting and killing of the Ugandan businessman Sidini Muhereza was not planned.
“After he was arrested, he used traditional tools to fight the Rwandan security officials that shot him in self-defence. We condemn smuggling goods into our country,” she said.
Muhereza is now the fifth Ugandan businessman to be shot and killed in
Rwanda while allegedly smuggling goods into the same country since
February last year.
Rwanda closed its Katuna border with Uganda and banned its nationals from entering Uganda.
