President Paul Kagame told business leaders and investors meeting in Rwanda that Uganda was the sole party to blame for the current standoff between the two sides.
“Politics is what is behind it, rather than anything else,” said Kagame, speaking at the opening of the Africa CEO Forum at the Radisson Blu Hotel & Kigali Convention Centre.
Responding to a question by Ellen Giokos, a CNN business reporter, on whether the closure of the Gatuna border point was impacting economic integration in the East African Community, Kagame cited past incidents in which Ugandan authorities have held goods in transit over flimsy reasons.
“Mineral containers from Kigali to Mombasa were held in Uganda for five months…Kenyans who bought milk from Rwanda had containers held in Uganda for days until tens of thousands of litres were spoilt. Politics is behind this rather than anything else,” he said.
President Kagame also told the delegates, among them Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Ethiopia’s Sahle-Work Zewde, that Uganda had imprisoned hundreds of Rwandans and denying them consular services.
“We have our people imprisoned in Uganda in places that are not known. We have brought this up with Uganda for the past two years and are getting nowhere,” he said.
“The problem is not the road, the problems is politics….The problem is not the border post being constructed, its politics behind it. We have hundreds of Rwandans being arrested in Uganda and piling up in prisons without charge, without consular access. They are telling Rwandans not to go there.”
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