By David Himbara
Writing in The Guardian on June 22, 2018, the Rwandan President Paul Kagame proclaimed that ”Africa is finally uniting: now we need good politics.” Less than a month later, Kagame had already forgotten African unity and good politics. He was now making veiled war threats. On July 13, 2018, Kagame boasted of his military might and how he will vanquish the enemy. As he put it,
”RDF is trained and prepared to fight wars but not to start them with others. But if others make us their problem and choose to start a war with us, that is when we use judgment, determination and training to fight and finish it for them.”
Being the Chairman of the African Union, one would have expected Kagame to celebrate the role of his military in African peacekeeping efforts. Instead, here he is making veiled threats to fight and finish unnamed African enemies.
Uganda is Kagame’s latest enemy
Kagame is a poor historian. RDF is trained and prepared to fight wars started by Kagame. He invaded and occupied DR Congo. He fought Uganda inside Congo. His militias captured Goma. He threatened to hit Tanzanian head of state Kikwete. He caused chaos in Burundi and hosted Burundian coup-makers. Kagame has caused problems for every neighbor without a single exception.
Currently, it is Uganda’s turn. For the past decade, Kagame exported violence to Uganda — sending death squads and kidnappers to inflict causality on the Rwandan community in that country. Evidently, Kagame even managed to capture elements of the Ugandan security leadership. Now that Uganda is finally putting its house in order, Kagame is making veiled war threats.
Uganda should continue its cleanup effort, Kagame’s noise notwithstanding
If I may immodestly say this, Uganda should continue its cleanup effort, no matter what. Let Kagame make noise. It appears that Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is a very patient person. Patience is a virtue — the saying goes. Musevenis’s agenda of weeding out bad apples from his security forces — including removal of Rwandan agents — without getting angry or upset is a valuable quality in leadership. War drums from across the border are just an irritant.
