Ambassador Joy Ruth Aceng deported by Cadana

A few days ago, Aceng was filmed in an altercation with a group of National Unity Platform (NUP) protesters.

Dressed in a yellow dress, the party colour of the Ugandan ruling National Resistance Movement party, the envoy exchanged bitterly with the protesters who were shouting slogans against the Ugandan regime over alleged human rights violations.

Ambassador Aceng in NRM colors pulse uganda

During the altercation, Aceng accused the opposition NUP of abducting its own people.

“You people should stop abducting yourselves; stop killing yourselves and saying it is Museveni,” she said.

She also threatened to have the Canadian police arrest the protesters.

Ambassadors and diplomatic envoys are strictly prohibited from engaging in party politics at their missions to maintain neutrality and uphold international diplomacy principles.

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations restricts their role to representing their home country's interests, fostering good relations, promoting peace, and not influencing the political landscape of their nation or the host nation.

Involvement in politics, the convention states, could compromise their impartiality, strain bilateral relations, and violate diplomatic protocols.

Following the incident, the Canadian authorities took the decision to request for Ambassador Aceng to be recalled.

Amb. Joy Ruth Aceng pulse uganda

The announcement came shortly after NUP President Bobi Wine and top party leaders visited Canada and interacted with its chapters in the capital Ottawa.

Bobi Wine said they were “happy to have exchanged thoughts with our comrades here about the trajectory of the struggle to dislodge dictator Museveni back home.”

Read: NUP Chicago Convention opens; Diaspora praised for triggering sanctions

Uganda Canada relations

Uganda and Canada's diplomatic relations have been shaped by a complex interplay of human rights concerns and economic interests. In recent years, Canada's focus in Uganda has centred on promoting human rights and has expressed deep concerns over Uganda's record, including extrajudicial killings and the suppression of civil society.

This friction was notably highlighted in 2018 when Canada pulled out of a deal to finance Uganda Airlines planes, citing concerns over human rights issues in Uganda.

Canada’s Export Development Canada (EDC), which had initially committed to provide credit funding for Uganda Airlines' four Bombardier CRJ900s, suddenly pulled out of the deal citing “commercial reasons.”

President Yoweri Museveni responded by accusing the Canadian Prime Minister of “bad manners.”

“Uganda is not part of that group which will dance to the tune of this one and that one because we are not too lazy to work. They can do that with people who are too lazy to work,” Museveni remarked.