The sour relationship between the governments of Rwanda and Uganda have worsened after President Paul Kagame reportedly issued a blockade on one of Uganda’s biggest newspapers Daily Monitor from crossing into his country.
Its reported that when buses arrived at the three border posts of Katuna, Kagitumba and Bunagana, they were instructed to offload any Daily Monitor products before they could proceed to Rwanda.
Justus Katungi, the Circulation Manager for Monitor Publications Limited, the publishers of Daily Monitor, Saturday and Sunday Monitor, confirmed the development and said today’s incident isn’t isolated since it has been ongoing.
“It is true our papers lately have been blocked but we leave everything to the authorities”. Katungi said.
“There was tension after the directive being passed and even the few people who had bought papers of the previous day panicked and handed them over to the authorities. Currently, some Daily Monitor papers are piled here but some have been taken back by their circulation agents” sources at Katuna border point said.
Daily Monitor and partly state owned New Vision are the only Ugandan papers that were allowed circulation in Rwanda.
Rwanda which entirely depends on Uganda for most of its services closed its side of the border at Katuna with Uganda in late February 2019.
The government of Rwanda has however not yet issued a statement about the ban on Daily Monitor and how long it will remain effective.
Prior to the ban Daily Monitor and some state-owned New Vision were the only Ugandan papers that were allowed circulation in Rwanda.
Tension between Rwanda and Uganda has been mounting ever since Kagame closed the borders between the two countries, despite the fact that Rwanda entirely depends on Uganda for most of its goods and services consumed by Rwandans.
