When in Uganda, Rwandans have learnt to be very, very careful

Shortly after Christmas, the Ugandan media ran stories to the effect that thieves had stolen important documents belonging to Rwandan President Paul Kagame during his Christmas holidays, which he spent in Uganda.

There were variations in the media reports about the real nature of the documents, most of them saying the documents were in the possession of the president’s personal doctor. Others said the documents actually belonged to the doctor and not to the president. There were also claims of some suspects being arrested.

In the end, official clarifications from Kigali and Kampala stated that no property belonging to the Rwandan dignitaries had been stolen. And so the matter was put to rest.

With hindsight, we can now all say that the Ugandan media should have been suspicious of the story in the first place because there is no way Rwandan officials could have come to Uganda without being extra alert about protecting their properties from thieves.  We can now afford to castigate the media for running an unconvincing story because recent events make it impossible for Rwandans to be robbed in Uganda.

Only last year, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was in Rwanda on an extended visit that was widely believed to be part of a process to restore the historical solidarity between the two states. The two leaders, whose relations had been strained for about a decade, opened up to each other in a new spirit of brotherhood. It was then that Museveni admitted to Kagame something that had always been said in whispers. The Ugandan president stated explicitly that his country was teeming with thieves.

This was possibly the first head of state in world history to publicly inform a foreign counterpart that his country is full of dishonest people. Forewarned is forearmed.

There is no way after that that Kagame’s delegation could come to Uganda without being extra cautious with their property. You can bet that every time Gen Kagame shakes hands with a Ugandan official, he surreptitiously counts his fingers to ensure none are missing.

And just around Christmas, Presidents Paul Kagame and Yoweri Museveni conducted an important ceremony at the Uganda-Rwanda border. This was the commissioning of a major road construction project. From Katuna border station, the new road has two sections, one into Uganda and the other into Rwanda.

By the time the two presidents met to commission the road works, it was already common knowledge that the section into Uganda was going to cost twice as much as the one per kilometer constructed into Rwanda.

Although the funds for both sections are coming from the same source, the European Union, the rate of building one kilometer in Uganda is twice that in Rwanda and the funder has yielded to the anomaly.

Never mind that the section in Rwanda is more expensive to work on because of the uneven terrain, and all the bulk inputs like stone and tar are cheaper to obtain in Uganda than in Rwanda.

That is the Uganda that President Kagame’s team entered last Christmas.

Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International fellow for development journalism. E-mail: buwembo@gmail.com