This week on 15 July, Uganda’s The New Vision published a story titled, “Businesswoman charged over $2,500 theft”; a report from the court, where a Rwanda National Congress (RNC) operative Prossy Boonabaana had appeared to defend herself against robbery charges. Earlier this year - on 27 March, Prossy Boonabaana is alleged to have stolen property and cash of $2,500 belonging to one Henry Mugisha. She is consequently being charged on two counts of theft. It isnt clear from the reporting on court proceedings, whether Boonaabana is a “businesswoman” or “social worker” since the two entirely different occupations are interchangeably repeated in the papers report. In reality, she is neither. Boonabaana is in actual fact a thug who, along with her live-in boyfriend Sulah Nuwamanya Wakabirigi, who stood surety for her bail application, is a Rwanda National Congress (RNC) operative in Uganda. The two spend much of their time crisscrossing the country, recruiting supporters for Kayumba Nyamwasas now fast-dwindling faction of the RNC. With the help of CMI, Prossy and Sulah have registered a fictitious non-profit organization named Self-Worth Initiative (SWI) whose purpose was to conceal these recruitment activities under the veil of pseudo humanitarian work. The New Vision article also refers to Sulah Nuwamanya as “a businessman” in the same way they are humanitarians. The magistrate, Asuman Muhumuza, who was reluctant to grant bail as the sureties had “not availed introduction letters from their local authorities,” ended up granting it on condition that the letters be brought to court “before Friday” 17 July. One of the reasons Sulah could not provide an introduction letter is that he, along with Prossy Boonabaana, have been provided with safe houses at the instructions of the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. On 2 March, ChimpReports wrote that Boonabaana and Nuwamanya had met President Museveni at State House, despite the fact the Luanda MoU between Uganda and Rwanda calls for the dismantling of their organization, repatriating the duo to face justice back home in Rwanda, or, failing that, relocating them to a third country. Contrary to that, President Museveni reassured the two, giving instructions to CMI’s Abel Kandiho and his deputy CK Asiimwe to provide them with bodyguards as well as putting them up in safe houses, in what was further proof of the importance Museveni attaches to his RNC links in their shared goal of destabilising Rwanda. It is surprising The New Vision, which is fully aware of these individuals roles in this impasse, would describe Boonabaana and Nuwamanya as merely a businesswoman and a businessman, respectively. The Ugandan theatre of the absurd continues without any intermission.
