Rwandan President Paul Kagame is demanding an official explanation from the United Kingdom as to why his country’s head of intelligence was arrested in London on June 20.

This despite ongoing efforts to defuse diplomatic tensions between two countries.

Lt-Gen Karenzi Karake, arrested on what Britain said was a “valid” European arrest warrant issued by a Spanish judge over crimes against humanity, was released last week after his case was discharged by a British court on grounds that an extradition offence could not be established under UK law.

The EastAfrican has learnt that the British Minister of State in the Department of International Development Grant Shapps, who is also temporarily holding the ministerial portfolio of Foreign Office, is expected in Kigali in the coming weeks in an attempt to defuse tensions between the two countries.

READ: Rwanda spy chief release to defuse fragile Kigali, London relations

Kigali has nonetheless ruled out a quick fix to the strained relations. While it welcomed Gen Karake’s release, Rwanda maintains that the British government must provide sufficient clarification as to why it hastened to arrest a senior official based on what it has deemed as “politically motivated” charges.

“It is not enough because the reason (for the arrest) has not been explained,” President Paul Kagame told parliament on Thursday, during the signing ceremony of performance contracts, known locally as Imihigo, for local and central governments for the fiscal year 2015/2016.

Rwanda, the president said, “must get a clear explanation as to why it happened.”

Kigali has over the years dismissed the indictments, issued in 2008 by Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles, describing them as “politically motivated” and meant to ‘’inconvenience” Rwanda.

Gen Karake and 39 other senior members of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) are accused of crimes against humanity and terrorism which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, including eight Spaniards, during and after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The government vehemently denies the accusations.

Kigali also maintains that the arrest was as a result of political conspiracy because Gen Karake had since travelled to the UK several times and no arrest was made. Speculation is also rife that the decision might have been influenced by exiled Rwandan opposition, who are believed to have alerted the Metropolitan Police of the general’s presence in the UK, piling pressure on the government to detain him.

“I remember seeing something in the press of the UK on the 17th of June — someone writing in the press the presence of General Karenzi, and what followed two days later was his arrest,” Rwanda’s Justice Minister Johnston Busingye told The EastAfrican. “We want to be sure before we take the next step.”

Mr Busingye, who is also the Attorney-General, added that he was aware that the exiled Rwandan dissidents were lobbying to have the general extradited to Spain. He underscored that diplomats of both countries have a few things to “sort out in our bilateral relationship.”

He added: “I do not know how and why a government with which we have very good relations would do depend on dissidents, on opposition, for information that hurts a legitimate government with which it they have good relations.”

It is widely believed in Rwanda that the UK had a choice of alerting Kigali about the arrest to avert the embarrassment because it has always been considered a friendly nation.

READ: UK, Rwanda: How do you feel when friends undermine you?

“There will have to be a conversation on those issues — why now, why UK, why the way it happened, why the way it ended — there are a number of things that I believe both governments will have to sit down and iron out,” Mr Busingye said.

But British High Commissioner to Rwanda William Gelling sought to downplay the rift, insisting that the relations were not in “a bad place.”

He argued that, due to the fact that the UK police and judiciary is independent whatever the British government’s view about the arrest warrant, if an arrest warrant is issued it will be carried out.

“I regret the fact that it (arrest) put the relations between the UK and Rwanda in a difficult situation” said Mr Gelling while maintaining that the arrest was not political.