On Sunday 13, 2021, Uganda went into a propaganda frenzy when Rwanda repatriated a Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) soldier who had strayed into Rwanda’s border territory. Many stories, including one from Uganda’s New vision and another from Daily Monitor with headlines that ran "Uganda wants Rwanda to hand back its soldier” and "Rwanda frees UPDF soldier captured at the border”, suggesting that Rwanda had kidnapped the UPDF soldier while he patrolled the borderline on Saturday.
However, the reality on the ground showed that the stray UPDF soldier, Private Baruku Muhuba, had crossed Ugandan territory and proceeded into Rwandan borders unknowingly, a fact he admitted to while being interviewed by the media right before being returned to his country. He was later officially returned to Uganda, in the presence of both border authorities and security officials of the Kisoro/Cyanika Districts. The Kisoro Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr. Peter Mugisha apologized on the soldier’s behalf and thanked his Rwandan counterparts for the professional handling and treatment of their strayed soldier.
"We are extremely happy to receive our soldier who told us that he was not harmed or injured. They also handed over the PK machine gun with its 100 bullets which the victim had in possession before he was captured,” Mugisha said, adding that UPDF soldiers should use GPS to avoid such future mistakes.
It is evident that the exchanges between border authorities of both countries show goodwill, but Ugandan media depicts an ugly image that insists on painting Rwanda as the antagonist to good neighborliness. Their distortions continue to blame Rwanda for all Kampala authorities’ malfeasance, even when the latter’s local authorities have acknowledged the mistake of their soldier.
Moreover, cases of Ugandan smugglers who were shot dead while trying to fight the police on duty and resisting arrest have become a Ugandan media favorite scapegoat narrative, choosing to legitimize and publicize criminality when they can use their platforms to denounce and create awareness of the criminality of smuggling.
The Daily Monitor in its two stories on the straying soldier incident keeps linking the mythical abduction of the UPDF soldier to the harassment of Rwanda’s citizens in Uganda (Rwanda stopped her citizens from crossing to Uganda, as their safety and security were not guaranteed once there), something for which the media in Kampala should hold their government accountable, as they occasionally and timidly do when opposition supporters are abducted in broad light, disappeared and even killed. Instead, Uganda’s media accepts to be used to twist by the authorities in Kampala into turning these serious issues affecting the lives of ordinary Rwandans in Uganda into a false moral equivalence.
On its part, Rwanda has lawfully and humanely treated Ugandans, even when they had committed infractions as the case involving the straying officer shows. This is contrary to the continued persecution of innocent Rwandans or Ugandans of Rwandan origins, their only crime being their nationality. Rwandans have been the target of harassment, inhumane treatment, torture, and wrongful arrests at the hands of Uganda’s security operatives acting on behalf of paranoid authorities who see enemies or "spies” on the corner of every street. Rwandans who have been lucky enough to get out of their tormentors’ hands are unceremoniously dumped at the border, dispossessed of their belongings. And this, among other offenses, has continued to undermine the mending of the two countries' relations.
Ugandan media’s coordinated campaign of misinformation to deceive the public is a sign of bad faith and lack of goodwill on the part of the authorities in Kampala towards finding redress for the Rwanda-Uganda. However, their provocations will not stop Rwanda from treating Ugandans, even UPDF officers like Private Baruku, humanely even as their government insists on a policy of harassment towards Rwandans in Uganda.