Reports Leo Odera Omolo
On Tuesday this week an interesting debate took place inside Kenyan Parliament where several MPs stood up in a flurry of supplementary questions demanded that the government should declare Uganda under President Yoweri Museveni as unfriendly, but be categorized as a hostile neighbor.
The issue came up during questions time in the House when MPS who rose to ask supplementary questions demanded for a permanent and long term solution to constant harassment of Kenyan citizens.
MPS John Mbadi {Gwassi}. Rachel Chebesh {Nominated} and Mohammed Afrey {Dujis} refused to accept an assurance given by Foreign Affairs Assistant Minister Richard Onyonka that Uganda has been behaving as a friendly country.
The Kenyan MPS questioned why Uganda has been arresting Kenyan frequently and then releasing them without preferring any criminal charges against them.
The matter came up when Afrey demanded to know the status of two MSF Switzerland Kenyan employees, Musa Hassan and John Lodong who were recently arrested by Uganda and detained on June 30, 2011 on suspicion of being Al-Shabaab Islamist terrorist group were later released without being charged in a court of law.
The Kenyan government, they MPS insisted has been too apologetic on Uganda however much unfriendly it has been to “our people.” Rather than side with the people, the government is always siding with Uganda,”
Onyonka, however, said the two Kenyans were released on police bond and charges were later dropped after investigations revealed that they had committed no crime.
The Minister insisted that it was a friendly country and that it had committed itself to observe the rule of law in dealing with Kenyans.
Asked how many Kenyans were currently in the custody of Ugandan authorities, the Minister said there are no records available to show that.
The Minister reminded the MPS how it is important for Kenya to maintain friendly relations Uganda, which its biggest trading partner and a neighbor.
“It is always a fact that it is Uganda which s harassing us” What are he long term solution to this happenings? This is because the issue of friendliness is an excuse.
They are very unfriendly,” shouted John Mbadi the Gwassi MPs whose constituents have been going under the harrowing experience with Ugandan authorities. Gwassi constituency which is among the several parliamentary constituencies in which are neighboring Uganda through Lake Victoria.
A week hardly passed without a reported incident whereby Uganda police ha seized fishermen in Lake Victoria long the Gwassi constituency shorelines.
The other constituency whose proximity to the borderline in Lake Victoria I Nyatike whose abrasive MP Edick Omondi Anyanga has quite often pleaded with the government for protection against arbitrary arrests of its constituents by Ugandan authority/A week a go three Kenyans fishermen spent a couple of days In Uganda after they were seized while fishing around the hotly disputed Migingo Island.
The men spent a couple of days in the custody of Ugandan police, but as they being release to go home, the Uganda marine police on the patrol around Migingo and Ugingo Island has seized another bunch of Kenya fishermen who they accused of trespassing into their territorial waters. In such incidents Kenyan fishermen loses their fishing gears including nets and boats as we as their catches.
“We are getting irritated especially those of us who represented the border areas,”shouted John Mbadi.
But the Minister insisted that only through diplomatic channels a lasting solution could be found.
Ends