AIGP(Rtd) Asan Kasingye

Pres. @KagutaMuseveni and the late Pres. Nyerere know the history of Banyamulenge in Eastern DRC, who are being denied by the DRC government as non Congolese. Today I want to talk about the people we call Banyarwanda in the Ugandan constitution. Their (great) parents left the present day Rwanda many years ago, freeing political persecution from the then government of Rwanda. Many of these Banyarwanda made great contributions to the liberation struggles of 1979 and 1986. Some shed their blood for Uganda to be free. Later those who liberated Uganda like Pres. @PaulKagame and his colleagues engaged in the liberation struggle/war using Uganda as base and liberated Rwanda in 1994. Gen. @sejudav was one of the first UPDF soldiers to visit Rwanda after the liberation. He knows the state of Rwanda first hand after genocide. I don't think that Banyarwanda who decided to return to Rwanda in 1994 and thereafter were asked to apply for citizenship. Those who decided to stay in Uganda, remained Ugandan citizens. But somehow, we treated them differently. They were denied passports, etc and this is public knowledge. So when Ugandans like Dr. Muganga were denied passports to go and study in Canada, the Rwandan government gave them passports. Did Dr. Muganga first apply for citizenship in Rwanda to get a passport? I don't think so. But we forget their history so fast. Why would the government of Pres. Kagame who suffered the same discrimination not know how to help Ugandans of Rwandese origin who are denied their rights in Uganda? Most likely Dr. Muganga's parents and great parents were born in Uganda. Dr. Muganga was born in Uganda. Holding a Rwandese passport does not make him a dual citizen unless if we have forgotten their history. We should be asking him to renounce his Canadian citizenship, which he has done. Even the little gains we see is because the Bavandimwe directly organised themselves and engaged Pres. Museveni. So when Dr. Muganga goes to the grave of his parents and cries, the ordinary Ugandan thinks he is desperate for a Ministerial appointment. He is not. Some of these Ugandans lost their relatives during the genocide of 1993-94 in Rwanda. This discrimination in parliament is traumatic and it brings back those memories of even being denied passports in Uganda and now being persecuted for getting a passport from Rwanda to enable him to study in Canada. If you were him what would you have done? I think you would have gotten that passport to go and study in Canada. It because of that decision that he is making a contribution to Uganda; the passport enabled him to study in Canada. If he didn't apply for citizenship before getting the Rwandese passport that expired, what do you want him to renounce? Parliamentary Committee on Appointments should publicly apologize for traumatising these Ugandans of Rwandese origin. We should never forget history& circumstances like those that made Dr. Muganga get a Rwandese passport just to access education in Canada. The circumstances necessitated it. Read the preamble of our Ugandan constitution. So why are we bent on asking him to renounce Rwandese Citizenship on the basis of a passport. In normal circumstances you cannot get a passport of the country before you become a citizen, but we know that this was not the case in the case of Dr. Muganga. Dr. Muganda should be asked to renounce Canadian citizenship, which he has done but not Rwandan, which he doesn't have. Dr. Muganga is a Uganda with full rights including being appointed and serving as a Minister. Pres. Museveni shouldn't undermine the gains he has achieved with Bavandimwe and declined to appoint Dr. Muganga minister. As a country we need to end marginalisation of minorities. The Banyarwanda born and living in Uganda are Ugandans like any one of us. So it is not too late for the Parliament of Uganda to do the right thing, i.e. approve the appointment of Dr. Muganga as Minister of State for Internal Affairs.