Rwandan President Paul Kagame (left) and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri
Museveni. Uganda and Rwanda have a long-held love-hate relationship.
PHOTO | PRESIDENCY
Uganda's President Museveni cancelled his trip to Kigali on
Monday for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) signing over
security concerns.
Daily Monitor reported that Ugandan and Rwandan security teams charged with mapping out the president’s itinerary failed to agree.
“Normally,
the advance team of a visiting head of State goes early to work with
the security of the host country to prepare for the requirements of the
visiting president. But this time, it was a different story,” a Ugandan
security source told Monitor.
The protocol
team checks where the president will stay, the routes and vehicles that
will be used during the summit period, among others.
Mr
Museveni’s advance team arrived in Kigali on March 12, but by Sunday
[March 18], the hotel to host the president was yet to be revealed as
well as vehicles he was to use.
The source said that by
that time all other presidential teams had information on where their
presidents would stay, routes and vehicles to be used, except the
Ugandans.
The Rwandans, the source said, misled the Ugandan team concerning meetings held to discuss the presidents’ itinerary.
Whenever
the Museveni team would ask to meet with their Rwandan counterparts for
discussion, they would be informed that there was no such meeting.
However, the Ugandans would later be informed that security meetings had
been held with other teams.
Frustrated, the Ugandans, reached out to Kampala, informing their bosses that the Rwandans were being uncooperative.
Sour relations
Relations
between Kigali and Kampala have been deteriorating since last October
after Rwanda accused Uganda of detaining and torturing its citizens and
hosting dissents who seek to destabilise the government. Uganda denies
the accusations but says those arrested were suspected of espionage.
Last month, Rwandan President Paul Kagame skipped an East African Community Summit held in Kampala.
Uganda and Rwanda have a long-held love-hate relationship.
Sources
say despite the seemingly icy relations, Mr Museveni had planned to
attend the Kigali summit but was advised to abort the trip by his
handlers seeing that they could not guarantee his security.
The Ugandan advance team left Rwanda on Sunday.
Asked
why the President cancelled the Kigali trip for the AU summit, Senior
Presidential Press Secretary Mr Don Wanyama said: “That is confidential
information I cannot share with the media.”
“The President is here because he has equally important matters to take care of,” Mr Wanyama added.
Uganda
instead sent Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Sam Kutesa, to Kigali who
signed the CFTA agreement as well as the Protocol on Free Movement of
Persons that allows for free movement of people, right to live and
establish a business anywhere in Africa.
The CFTA aims
at boosting intra-Africa trade by making Africa a single market of 1.2
billion people and cumulated GDP of more than $3.4 trillion.
-Reported by Frederic Musisi.
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