UK government reluctant to release information about how it approved the Rwandan High Commissioner

The UK government has recently approved the appointment of Johnson Busingye as the new High Commissioner to Rwanda. When the contravention former minister of justice as nominated by Kigali to be the High Commissioner in London, they have been many call to urge the UK government not to approve his nomination due to his participation in kidnapping of Paul Rusesabagina by the Rwandan intelligence service. Mr Besingye had said to the Aljazeera that the Rwandan government paid the jet that illegally and forcefully transported Mr Rusesabagina to Kigali.

Despite that the UK government approved his nomination ignoring protesting voices.
Few weeks later a Rwando-British citizen wrote to the foreign office requesting information on what process of vetting used to approve mr Busingye. He also wanted to know whether they have considered the safety of critics of the Rwandan government living in the UK.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Foreign Office should provide that information to Mr Mugenzi within 20 days. However just 1 day before the 20 days deadline, the Foreign Office wrote to Mr Mugenzi and informed that it take more than 20 days to get that information to him. This response from FCO clearly demonstrates that they are very nervous about information they can give to Mr Mugenzi. Otherwise if they had nothing to hide or nervous about, it could not have taken The Foreign Office more than 20 days to respond to his request.

We are waiting with interest what information they will eventually give to him or whether they will decide not to give it to him. In that case they will have to explain tangible reasons. Watch this space