The announcement to temporal reopen the Katuna border caused a wave of excitement in the business world in the areas of proximity with the media giving the development attention in a high gear. Several papers crafted eye catching headlines including the Explorer.
The Rwandan government however, issued a travel advisory for its citizens who intend to visit Uganda warning them of fears for torture and incarceration.
Some media reports and social media publications point at this fact to insinuate that Rwanda is tempting its neighbor into a scuffle as the Ugandan government previously dismissed allegations of torture and incarceration holding that its borders are open to all foreigners as long as they are law abiding.
Whereas it’s good News for the business scene of the two countries, sources of the explorer from Kigali indicate that the government of Rwanda has started to succumb to pressure from its citizens who are cut off of supplies from Uganda a thing that has affected their lively hood.
A resident of Kigali city revealed that most of the Hospitals have seen days without pharmaceutical supplies and food in markets has increasingly gone high in pricing making the livelihood of the common natives very difficult in Rwanda.
This revelation could explain why in the temporal opening of the Katuna border was flagged in with clearing of Ugandan registered trucks carrying cassava supplies to Kigali and Congo while several empty trucks were cleared to come into Uganda.
A section of political analysts have also been drawn into a discussion of whether Rwanda can survive with a sour relationship with its long term ally.
To the amusement of the hopeful citizens on either side, the Rwanda Revenue Authority Commissioner General Mr. Pascal Bizimana Ruganitwali said that they were testing the rebuilt one stop border post in Gatuna by reopening the route to cargo traffic from June 10th to 22nd. The Rwandan State Minister for East Africa Community Affairs Mr. Olivier Nduhungirehe also added that they will decide whether to permanently re-open the border.
These public statements shade sinister feelings among the patient traders leaving them in positions where they are unable to predict the fate of their businesses across the border. It is evident from Nduhungirehe’s statements that the will to open the border is futile but because of the underlying consequences, it might be the only scapegoat to the cold bickering between the sister countries.
Members of the Katuna Clearing Agents Association who preferred to be kept out of record revealed to the Explorer investigative team that the move to close borders has affected both parties businesswise but also revealed that the most affected is Rwanda whose population is still struggling to get food supplies to their home through porous border points a thing that may result into further complicated scenes.
The question is not who wins and takes in this puzzle but the law of nature will dictate. To be human doesn’t mean you are humane enough and that’s where the lines must be drawn for the survival of the innocent citizens in especially in the most affected country. Previously, this News site published an article that indicated how residents of border neighbouring villages in Rwanda were mounting pressure on government over medicine and food supplies a thing the Rwandan government contested.
However, there were cases of shootings at the Kyanika border and another case where a pregnant woman died in efforts to cross to Kisoro for medication and food. These are outstanding cases that got media attention, however there are other cases that were not reported all indicating that the closure of the border is bad for the common citizen.
The question that answers the complex cold war should be simple. Who does government serve? Citizens. Does government need to put its international ego above the safety and livelihood of its subordinates? And as these rhetoric questions run in our brains, Rwanda needs to go back to the drawing table and see whether its priority is to inflict pain on its citizens over what could be baseless or peacock tempers. There is no war that can’t be dealt with, with dialogue. Let us save the readers from the history of the Genocide but largely, it had its roots from a character of superiority egos between tribes.
