By Mulengera Reporters
Lands State Minister Parcis Namuganza has added a new twist to the diplomatic row between Uganda and Rwanda. Speaking on 89.6fm Top Radio’s Negwozadde program this Saturday morning, Namuganza said the Rwandan top officials are very restless about her boss President Museveni’s resolve (she calls him Papa) to have the Uganda National Airliner revived soonest. Namuganza says the current anger by the Rwandan authorities is more related to Kigali’s economic interests and desire to dwarf and overshadow Uganda than to any political differences between the two leaders. In a bid to defend Works & Transport Minister Moniza Azuba Ntege who last week faced castigation in Parliament, Namuganza said the apparent disorganization and incoherence seen in the way Azuba and Finance Minister Matia Kasaija faced angry MPs didn’t just happen. She says there are technocrats in the Works Ministry who had already been compromised with financial gratifications in order to serve the interests of Rwanda Air while sabotaging Museveni’s efforts to revive Uganda Airlines. The free-spirited Bukono County MP said she knew much more because this perceived Rwanda frustration has been on the cabinet agenda and disccussed several times. “Mzee had innocently acquiesced to Rwanda’s wish to have Rwanda Air licensed to operate (technically having 5th freedom rights) direct flights between Entebbe and China and also between Entebbe and Juba. They wanted that license for 20 years and that was going to deprive our own Airline of business because those are the most lucrative routes serving destinations to which most Ugandans travel. We have Chinese travelling to Entebbe so often and the same applies to South Sudan. On being told by his Rwandan counterpart how the license deal was about to be concluded, the President asked in Cabinet why the technical people were going behind Hon Monica Azuba and doing all these things without consulting the political leadership. Mind you once granted the license for 20 years, it can’t be cancelled. Mzee told us he didn’t want to act in anyway that would make his brother (Kagame) uncomfortable but as cabinet, we joined Hon Azuba and put our foot on the ground saying that can’t be,” Namuganza explained saying she had to use Top Radio to clear the air even at the expense of being perceived as breaching the cabinet oath of secrecy. “These are things our people must know and its my duty to set the record straight since many governmemt officials aren’t comfortable doing so.” She said on getting proper facts from Azuba, Museveni realized that the revamped Uganda Airlines would suffer a false start if the Rwandans got the 20 year linense for the two routes for their Rwanda Air as this would mean operating direct flights from Entebbe to Juba and to China yet those are the very routes the Uganda Airlines is counting on for its niche market. Namuganza says even as Azuba pushed hard in several cabinet meetings, there are a few colleagues who tried to contradict her but backed off on realizing where the President stood on the matter. She said its possible some technocrats could have got financial gratifications to serve as 5th columnists against the restoration process and its possible they are still active trying to humiliate and demoralize government, Kasaija and Azuba as they continue facing legislators.
BIGGER PROBLEM
Mulengera news rang Namuganza immediately after the Dunstan Busulwa talk show on Top Radio and Namuganza said its not just Rwanda that was cold-hearted towards Uganda Airlines restoration. She said even other governments like Kenya and Ethiopia are nervously working day and night to placate their respective Kenya Airways and Ethiopia Airlines against huge loss of business resulting from the return of Uganda Airlines to the skies. Renowned for fearlessly speaking her mind, Namuganza said the Rwandan authorities had gone as far as campaigning to grab the tagline brand “Pearl of Africa” from Uganda with Kigali officially arguing in one of the continental meetings that Kampala no longer qualifiies to be called “Pearl of Africa” given the high levels of environmental degradation Uganda has endured in the past few decades. Namuganza says regrettably technocrats working behind Azuba and the President’s back had acqiuesced to such demands by Kigali. She says the President now knows everything about this betrayal and she won’t be surprised if heads rolled some day. She says whereas there are 5th columnists, as cabinet they are proud of some “highly patriotic technocrats” who have been doing a good job backing up Azuba each time she comes to update cabinet about the progress being made on Uganda Airlines restoration. As competition continues biting, the Kenyan Aviation too is understood to be pondering severe restrictions on Rwanda Air as they try to placate their own Kenya Airways. The problem for Rwanda Air, industry experts say, is because Kigali has a very small number of domestic travellers compared to Uganda and Kenya.
