The internet is an active ideological and political battleground and people will not shy away from spreading falsehoods to send their message home. Others will post achievements that nearly always rile the opposite side and which will be sure to trigger a jealous rage, name-calling and outright hate-filled abuses. Most of those who drive the anti-Rwanda campaigns are members of opposition groups, Genocide perpetrators, deniers and their acolytes without forgetting electronic combatants and pseudo-politicians. Others are driven by pure racial hatred or because their weaknesses, lies and have been exposed and their only response is spewing hate, distorting events in the country or celebrating catastrophic events. That was the case when floods this week washed away a bridge linking Morogoro and Dar-es-Salaam which is also one of the gateways of Rwanda’s imports and exports. The jubilation on the internet was deafening on the misconceptions that Rwanda had been put in a fix. Some thought it would eat humble pie, go on its knees and beg Uganda to normalise operations, but in a swift move, Tanzanian authorities spoilt their party when surprisingly it reopened the road within 48 hours. It was an expression of the capabilities of the Tanzanian government and its commitment to regional trade and cooperation, something that has been in short supply in the region of late. This small incident should take leaders back to the table to design how, on top of improving air and road transport, how water transport could also be given a priority. And of course the disappointed trolls are busy rearming and it will be just a matter of time before they find a new bone to gnaw. That is the nature of hate; it never lets go.
