Despite Uganda’s cooperation in the ongoing efforts to restore relations with Rwanda, the Kigali administration seems not to have relented on espionage and other subversive activities in Uganda, and are actually showing no sign of ending their illegal activities in Uganda soon.
In yet another shocking development, SoftPower News, has exclusively learnt that security on Friday arrested four Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) soldiers in Kyazanga town council in Lwengo District. Security also arrested a number of their collaborators in the same area.
Some of the arrested individuals include Mugabo Justin aka Mwesigwa Peterson and his wife Uwimana Egidie aka Lydia Kobusingye.
Impeccable sources in security reveal that the RDF intelligence operatives disguised as Ugandans but on arrest, they were found to have Rwanda National Identity cards.
“We retrieved documents from them. They had National Identity cards of Rwanda but disguised as Ugandans to go about their illegal activities under cover,” a highly placed security source who spoke on condition of anonymity told this news website.
Rwanda is known to rely significantly on clandestine intelligence networks planted in other countries sometimes using female sex workers.
Recently, a research conducted by a group of investigative journalists under OCCRP revealed that Rwandan government led by President Paul Kagame employed Israel Spy Tech, Pegasus, to monitor phones of high-ranking political and military figures in the Great Lakes Region countries including Uganda where they targeted among others former Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa and former Chief of Defence Forces Gen David Muhoozi, all President Yoweri Museveni’s appointees.
Two years ago, security agencies arrested four Rwandan students from Kampala International University (KIU) who run intelligence cells that forge details including bio data, to process Ugandan IDs for Rwandan nationals.
The arrested students all addressed as International students in a letter to the top University administration by Jovia Karwana, the Dean of students, noting how they (Rwandans) had missed some examination papers after their arrest.
Rwandan media including state owned New Times newspaper described the students as Rwandans innocently arrested in Uganda. SoftPower News however established that the detained students were known to be Rwandans by the University and already owned up by their home country. They too possessed Ugandan national Identity cards and masqueraded as Ugandans.
SoftPower News’ investigation revealed that Kigali used students as a link to get their intelligence and criminal elements Ugandan IDs.
How do they get the IDs?
We established that one of the students had for long been part of the Rwandan racket helping other Rwandan elements to fill NIRA forms with Ugandan parishes, counties and districts as their birth places.
SoftPower News established that there were several Rwandan intelligence cells for purposes of IDs in places near a number of Universities in Kabalagala and Kansanga along Ggaba road where these trained intelligence agents on covert missions covering up as students.
They were also said to have recruited more students as Ugandan authorities could easily ignore students.
Our investigations further showed that the intelligence of this Rwandan racket beats Uganda’s surveillance of airtel and MTN receipts by using Mpesa to receive money from Rwanda to aid their subversive activities.
One of the M-Pesa outlets was run by Gakuru Frank who held a Rwandan ID, Indangamutu, as well as a Ugandan ID,” a police source told SoftPowerNews.
A security source told this news website that the cells were commanded by Rwanda’s First Secretary in Uganda, Mucyo.
Prior to this, a joint operation by Uganda’s security had busted a Rwandan intelligence cell that was operating in Kibuye near Kampala under the cover of a church organisation, cracking down on at least 40 members. The arrested individuals were later reported to be members of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), a Rwandan intelligence agency.
Rwanda denies conducting espionage activities in Uganda but Ugandan officials say it’s these acts and other attempts at compromising Uganda’s security that continue to affect Uganda’s relations with Rwanda.
Ugandan government spokesperson, Ofwono Opondo said that it’s up to Uganda to strengthen it’s cyber security protocols otherwise the world is full of espionage even among allies.
Uganda and Rwanda have had frosty relations since 2018 when Rwanda unilaterally closed its borders to Uganda’s products and movement of persons, causing countless losses to Ugandan businessmen at a time Rwandan President Paul Kagame was the Chairman of the East African Community (EAC) – a regional bloc which, among others, drives integration and intra-regional trade.
The leader of the small East African country bordering Uganda to the Southwest also stopped Rwandan Nationals from crossing to Uganda.