President Yoweri Museveni has sent the Commander of Land Forces Lieutenant General Muhoozi Kainerugaba

Although this meeting is being dubbed as a courtesy call, Kainerugaba revealed the potential depths of the conversations between Kigali and Kampala when he tweeted favourably about Kagame a week ago.

Kainerugaba's tweet Pulse Live Uganda

‘’This is my uncle, Afande Paul Kagame. Those who fight him are fighting my family. They should all be careful,” Muhoozi said in a tweet, with two pictures of Kagame accompanying his words to make absolutely clear that he was talking about the president of Rwanda and not any other Paul Kagame.

During the week, Museveni sent Kagame a ‘special message’ through Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, Uganda’s Permanent Representative of Uganda to the United Nations.

Our sources reveal that beyond felicitations and diplomatic courtesies, the special message was preparing the ground for Kainerugaba’s visit to Rwanda.

After Kagame and Ayebare met, the Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo tweeted, “Good to see talks continue at all levels, but meetings and envoy visits have not led to tangible results on Uganda’s part. Still no accountability for terrorist elements operating against Rwanda inside Uganda, and harassment of innocent Rwandans continues.”

Although this tweet struck a somewhat defiant tone, our sources reveal that it was a diplomatic sleight-of-hand to throw the public off the trail of breadcrumbs dropped by Kainerugaba’s tweet. This served the purpose of ensuring the bilateral talks between Rwanda and Uganda are not preempted by expectations and speculations on either side.

However, with Kainerugaba’s visit to Rwanda there seems to be real intent on the part of both sides to achieve what diplomats call rapprochement or the establishment or resumption of harmonious relations.

It is believed that Kainerugaba’s closeness to president Museveni, he is the First Son and presidential advisor on special duties, is the perfect pivot from which relations between Kagame and Museveni may be restored. He is also said to have a favourable view of Kagame, thus making him a special and acceptable envoy with whom Kigali is more than happy to do business.

Kagame also reportedly views Kainerugaba as pro-Rwanda and thus an "honest broker" which, in officialese, means he views the First Son as an entity that is accepted by both sides in bilateral talks as impartial.

Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the honest broker Pulse Live Uganda

Naturally, our sources say, Kainerugaba’s neutrality in the Rwanda-Uganda tensions does not equal an absence of interest on his part; rather, his interest lies in a solution that helps both countries.

It has also been revealed that Museveni has sent other envoys through diplomatic and non-diplomatic channels, but nothing concrete has been done on the road towards mending relations between the two countries.

The poor relations between the two countries started going pear-shaped when, in February 2019, when Rwanda closed its borders with Uganda and issued a travel advisory strongly warning its citizens against traveling to Uganda.

Rwanda accuses Uganda of supporting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed rebel group operating in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), a Rwandan opposition group. The two entities, it is said, are both allegedly trying to topple Kagame.

The Ugandan government has denied both allegations.

On Uganda’s part, Museveni accuses Rwanda of infiltrating Uganda’s security agencies with a prime eye on regime change, a claim that official Kigali denies.