Rwanda, Uganda relations: Spread of fake news violates Luanda agreement

By Julius Bizimungu

Minister of Justice Johnston Busingye. / File

Rwanda’s Minister of Justice Johnston Busingye has said that the spread of fake news by Ugandan media violates the Luanda agreement that was signed between Rwanda and Uganda.

Uganda’s government-owned publication, New Vision, published a story on Saturday, falsely alleging that President Paul Kagame met Kizza Besigye, a long-time rival of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

In a fabricated version, the newspaper wrote that the President met Besigye in New York.

Busingye, who is also the Attorney General told The New Times that he had reached out to the Ugandan Attorney General, William Byaruhanga on Saturday evening, over the fake news and propaganda that President Kagame met Kizza Besigye recently. 

“I wanted to remove doubt that he and his Government might not be aware that it is fake,” Busingye said. 

The article by New Vision is one of the many propaganda pieces that the newspaper has been spreading.

Busingye said that his Ugandan counterpart “replied acknowledging he had read it and he expressed shock” but that he was yet to give him feedback. 

The fake news comes at a time Rwandan and Uganda are attempting to mend their deteriorating relations after following the signed a memorandum of understanding in Luanda, Angola.

“Indeed it (fake news) violates the Luanda process. It was agreed at the 16th Sept 2019 Rwanda/ Uganda post-Luanda meeting, in Kigali that this hostile propaganda would cease,” Busingye noted.

Ugandan authorities were yet to order New Vision to retract the fabricated news, and neither had it provided any explanation about what may have motivated that.

Efforts to get a comment from Uganda’s Attorney General were fruitless. 

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