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The meeting between Kagame and Museveni at the Nairobi summit is one more sign of warming between the two countries. Illustrative photo taken in 2018.
Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame held talks at the Nairobi summit on Friday April 8. This is the first meeting between Ugandan and Rwandan leaders on regional issues in two years. The last time was in February 2020 in Gatuna, after the closure of this border post by Kigali. Since the reopening of land borders in January, relations between these two East African neighbors have warmed up.
It’s a wide-angle photo of two leaders seated side by side that illustrates this warming. On his official Twitter account, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni talks about his meeting with his Rwandan counterpart shortly before the signing of the DRC’s accession treaty to the East African Community.
No details on the content of their discussions, but according to our sources, the two men talked about the reopening of their borders, the expulsion by Uganda of a figure of the Rwandan opposition last week, and their commitment to strengthen their relations in order to avoid future disagreements.
Until the thaw in their relations, the two countries accused each other of attempting to destabilize, which culminated in the closure of the border in February 2019.
The Journey of Museveni’s Son; Muhoozi Kainerugaba in Kigali in January initiated a process of reconciliation. Dynamics evoked Friday in the speech of the Ugandan president where he insisted on the importance of fraternity.
This discourse remains to be concretized, according to the researcher Kobi Annan, since the “ arbitrary evictions of Rwandans by Uganda, continue.