{UAH} I come to bury Karegeya, I don’t seek his killers… - Commentary - monitor.co.ug

http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/I-come-to-bury-Karegeya--I-don-t-seek-his-killers-/-/689364/2141686/-/11dstnl/-/index.html

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I come to bury Karegeya, I don't seek his killers… - Commentary

In Summary

I have been stateless before and I would not wish my dead body to be stateless too.

Most readers of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar tease out Marcus Brutus as a villain associated with intrigue and betrayal of Julius Gaius Caesar. However, a deeper thematic appreciation of the work offers us Marcus Brutus as a man struggling to balance the demands of honour, patriotism and friendship.

However, away from the limitations of Shakespeare's thespian work, the storyline in Julius Caesar is recorded history. Therefore, there is a need to appreciate the politics behind the regicide of the imperator Julius Caesar on the Ides of March. In Rome, it was oratory rhetoric and valour on the battleground that made men. In the aftermath of Julius Caesar's death, Marcus Antonio captured the imaginations of the Romans as Shakespeare brings it to us thus:
"I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones"

We shall borrow Marcus Antonio's words and Kinyarwandanise them here: twajye guhamba Karegeya, ntabwo dushakisha uwamwishe… (we come to burry Karegeya, not to seek his killer). The trouble though is: where shall we burry Patrick Karegeya?

It is the wish of Karegeya's family that he is buried in Mbarara in Western Uganda. But the government of Uganda will not allow an old woman's wish if only for the appeasement of a friendly royal house in the neighbourhood.

A short statement issued by the government on Sunday January 5 read as follows:
"Following media reports of the death of Col Patrick Karegeya in South Africa and speculation regarding his internament (sic), the Government of the Republic of Uganda wishes to clarify that the deceased was a citizen of the Republic of Rwanda and resident in South Africa at the time of his death. Therefore, burial arrangements should be made in one of those countries.

The government has communicated this position to the family of the Late Karegeya." Don't mind that Karegeya did not hold the rank of Colonel in any army known to the author of this statement. Karegeya was stripped of the rank of Colonel by the Rwanda Defence Forces.

Hoping that I would perhaps influence things (forgive my immodesty), I had posted the following on my Facebook Timeline: Patrick Karegeya's parents were not part of the 1959 Rwanda refugee cases like Paul Kagame. Karegeya was a Ugandan; a member of the Banyarwanda community itemised in Uganda's Constitution... But, of course, the government of Uganda (and that of Rwanda) have conspired to play politics on such a simple matter as the burial of a dead body.

Karegeya was born in Rushenyi County (in Ntungamo District), a county predominantly inhabited by Banyarwanda. Both his parents John and Jane Kanimba very Ugandans like any Mukonzo from Kiburara.

By the time of his birth, there was no Rushenyi County. What is now known as Rushenyi County was curved from Kajara County (one of the 10 Counties of Ankole Kingdom) in the 1970s by the Idd Amin Military government.

Karegeya's father Kanimba, as well as his grandfather Bigirimana, were bona fide Ugandans. And since Ugandans tend to attach citizenship and nationality to graves, please note that both Mr Kanimba (father) and Mr Bigirimana (grandfather) were buried in Uganda.

Karegeya remains a Ugandan. Otherwise what is the difference between Karegeya's case and that of Ambassador Olara Otunu who once held the citizenship of a West African country? The Karegeya case however has set a dangerous precedent because the government is acting as if it has the power to vary one's Ugandan citizenship.

I have been stateless before and I would not wish my dead body to be stateless too. Yet I don't grieve for Karegeya's earthly body situation. I grieve for the very many Banyarwanda (bona fide Ugandans like me) working in Rwanda in highly placed positions.

Mr Bisiika is the executive editor of East Africa Flagpost.

I come to bury Karegeya, I don't seek his killers… - Commentary - monitor.co.ug
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/I-come-to-bury-Karegeya--I-don-t-seek-his-killers-/-/689364/2141686/-/11dstnl/-/index.html