A group of five Rwandans, including two teenage siblings, was on Friday morning dumped at Kagitumba border post by Ugandas Ministry of Internal Affairs, following lengthy detentions, mostly in ungazetted facilities. The group includes two teens who have been in detention since December 10, 2020, one 19 years old while another is 17. They were both students, one in senior four the other in senior two. The two siblings left Rwanda in 2015 with their parents, and are now deported, but their parents remained in Uganda. Eliel Ishimwe, the older one, said Security officials came to our home at around 3 PM while our parents were away for work, they asked us if we had documents to stay in Uganda. At first, they told us that we were President Kagames spies, but they later changed to the story and said we were in Uganda illegally.” The visibly shaken youth said that throughout their time in detention, they only ate once a day, saying that initially they were detained at a police post called Bukasa but in the last few days to their deportation, they were being held from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. While in police custody, I spent one month and a half without having a shower, and that is what saddened me most, he said. When we were taken to court, we found the judge eating. He ruled to deport us to Rwanda, I asked why are we being taken away from our parents? But he could not listen, he was busy eating! Ishimwe said Ishimwe said that though they are happy to have been released, he does not know how life will be without their parents. He said that they will be staying with a distant aunt. Napoleon Rebero, 47, was arrested on January 10, along with his wife, and both were directly sent to the Ugandan Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) headquarters in Mbuya, Kampala. His wife was released after a short time but neither her nor his four children could visit him, and he only notified the wife about his deportation after reaching Kagitumba border. I was born in Uganda, but I later came to work in Rwanda, before I returned to Uganda again. Despite the fact that some of my family members are dead, majority of my family lives in Uganda, he said. Rebero, who said he had a Ugandan national ID, said that he did not know what he was detained for, only learned from what was written on his deportation document that he had been staying in Uganda illegally. What saddened me is the fact that I was arrested like a thief, I was separated from my family, thats devastating, he said. I am going to ask for legal advice because I do not know what to do, he noted. He has been doing business at the same workplace in Kampala for 20 years and being his birthplace, this is where his parents and other family members are buried. I did not commit any crime, he insisted. Shadrack Gahungu Mugisha, 29, legally went to Kenya in 2013 to do business before moving to Uganda two years later. He partnered with a former colleague and started a bar and restaurant business, which made a huge success in Kampala for more than three years before Covid-19 came in. He then late in 2020 moved from Kololo to Kansanga, both Kampala suburbs, where he set up his business and that is where he was arrested on February 4. For the past three years, many Rwandans have been illegally detained and tortured in Uganda, the only reason given is spying, no matter what legal documents you got. Sadly, they have never prosecuted a single person on that serious charge,” he said. “There are men whose wives do not know their whereabouts, he added, saying that his wife and two children do not know where he is. He said he has lost many properties there which he does not know how he will recover.
