By Our Reporters
Social media icon Sarah Kagingo’s news website (www.softpower.ug) has been banned in Rwanda and as we speak now, tens of thousands of Rwandans used to religiously following her news stories are in total blackout. Kagingo herself says the news website was recently blocked by the Rwandan authorities ostensibly to protest the manner in which she has lately reported about diplomatic tensions between Kampala and Kigali. In a very ideological fashion, Kagingo’s soft power was perceived to have taken a line aimed at directly counteracting numerous pro-Kigali news blogs whose reporting she considered demeaning to her mentor Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda.
In her harsh reporting of the situation, Kagingo has overtly been condemning Kigali and the Uganda police officers it has allegedly been working with to repatriate Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers back to Rwanda. In fact her articles have been the most elaborate on the latest hostilities between Kampala and Kigali. She has taken no prisoners in her reporting; often calling a spade what it is and many consider that her articles, based on sources from CMI and ISO, greatly deflated Gen Kale Kayihura and gradually justified his ouster from the office of IGP. Kagingo’s narrative has been that Kigali and Kayihura were working on something big to the detriment of the regime in Kampala. Her soft power one time published an article claiming existence of a list of journalists and Kampala regime officials that Kigali wanted dead.
She had had many unflattering articles but many believe that this blockbuster (claiming plot to kills scribes and leaders in Kampala) amounted to hitting the Kigali regime below the belt. It was simply very detailed and many of the people who took time to read it became nauseated. Thus not very surprisingly, the regime in Kigali has responded hitting Sarah Kagingo where it hurts most.
Her site has been blocked meaning Rwandan citizens can’t access it any more. She appeared on NTV 4th Estate on Sunday and publicly protested this reaction by Kigali. She appeared a long with Dr. Fred Goloba Mutebi who serves as an advisor of sorts to President Kagame. The other panelist was Onapito Ekomoloit who seemed not surprised with the Kigali firm stance against Kagingo’s news blog. In fact it’s doubtable, Kagingo will ever be permitted to step in Kigali again. The Rwandan leaders are renowned for their elaborateness when they swing. For much of the show, Kagingo (formerly a State House Communications Assistant) vigorously defended her leader Museveni repeatedly describing him as the region’s most experienced leader when it comes to diplomacy. She insisted that the pro-Rwanda news blogs, based both in Nairobi & Kigali, have unfairly been reporting about the Ugandan leadership. She dared Kigali to come out and denounce what she called “faceless blogs.”
GOLOBA SPILLS SECRETS
Goloba didn’t say much about the soft power ban but instead blamed Kampala for the latest hostilities and to make his point, he referred to three instances. Firstly he said the denial of permission by Kampala for Rwanda Air to stop over in Entebbe and pick Europe-bound passengers unsettled Rwanda. It was an act of hostility unexpected of a brotherly neighbor, he said adding there was no prior provocation by Kigali. But later on the show, a caller who sounded deeply knowledgeable as if he was a government official furiously responded to Goloba on this issue telling him plainly that: “Those airlines like Qatar Airways you are complaining about are serious airline employing much more people than your Rwanda Air can ever. In fact the few Ugandans who worked there were expelled without clear reasons and why should Rwanda become bitter when Uganda protects its interests?” The caller added that it would be foolhardy for Uganda to give away its aviation route “because we shall soon be having our own airline back and it will be using that very route taking passengers from Entebbe to Europe.” Goloba characteristically ignored this caller’s rant.
He said the second cause of problems was that Kigali was hurt even more when Kampala allowed a non-African airline the very aviation rights it denied Kigali. He added that delay in completion of the power line to Rwanda had also been (mis)interpreted as an act aimed at economically sabotaging Kigali’s development. He said Kigali was furious Kampala was sidelining them and instead working more with the South Sudanese in Juba regarding the power transmission line project.
Goloba, who has since acquired Rwandan citizenship having permanently quit his Makerere job following sharp disagreements with MISR boss Prof Mohamood Mamdani, revealed that some of Kagame’s uneasiness relates to the way Uganda has been sidelining Rwanda on major infrastructural projects that should ideally have been jointly implemented e.g. the SGR.
Goloba, who is no doubt very close to President Kagame having been marketed to him by media entrepreneur Andrew Mwenda, also discussed the issue of Rwanda National Congress (RNC) whose subversive activities he said Kampala was overlooking and thereby unsettling Kigali. Onapito shut him up saying such exile political groups were a natural consequence of a leader who rules like a monarch by overstaying in power and practicing dictatorship. Onapito and moderator Mwanguhya urged Goloba not to overlook governance issues in Rwanda and the regime’s intolerance to divergent views. Asked to explain what in his view was causing what he repeatedly implied to be mild tensions between the two countries, Goloba (who was clearly guarded and spoke very cautiously most of the time) put the blame on the media saying they had become sensational and there are a lot of issues and questions that they are not raising.
This prompted moderator Charles Mwanguhya to remind him it’s not journalists who forced President Museveni to make the comments he made during the Sunday news conference confirming existence of tensions which he (M7) attributed on the ineptness of the intelligence services in both countries. “I’m sure it will be resolved in the end because what the media has reported is totally the opposite of what I know. I can’t imagine the Rwandans I know [in gov’t & security] treating President Museveni that way.
He is a man they regard highly and they can simply never treat him the way some media reports have indicated. These two countries are closely very much connected and none of them can benefit from hostilities. 15 buses every day leave Uganda for Rwanda and the same number cross to Uganda every day from Rwanda. The citizens are going about their business and that must continue,” said Goloba who, according to Mwanguhya, was supposed to appear with Andrew Mwenda who chickened out at the last minute citing sudden sickness.
