SMALL LITTLE EFFORTS THAT COULD RESTORE K’LA-KIGALI DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
A few days ago, Uganda’s High Commissioner to Rwanda Amb. Olive Wonheka reached out to 15 African Mission heads accredited to Rwanda causing them to enthusiastically participate in festivities to celebrate African Liberation Day.
With Ugandans playing the larger part, the organizing committee also reached to the Rwandan Pan African Movement (PAM) chapter whose officials actively participated in preparing the event. And the results were unexpectedly marvelous exceeding everybody’s expectations.
Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation Richard Sezibera (who previously made difficult comments about Uganda) responded positively and personally attended the event at Intare Conference Arena in Kigali where he freely interacted with the Ugandan officials and even accepted taking food served by Ugandans.
At the cultural night, hosted at Intare after members of the diplomatic corps laid a wreath at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in honor of the 1994 genocide victims, Ugandan dish was the main food served and Sezibera and his officials excitedly partook of the meal. With all things said and done that evening, the question on everyone’s mind was how far can such little gestures go in repairing the badly damaged relations between Kampala and Kigali.
