Dr Lawrence Muganga, the vice chancellor of tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia’s Victoria University, was released September 04 night after a night in detention by joint security forces.
According to UPDF spokesperson Brig Flavia Byekwaso, security operatives had arrested Dr Muganga “in connection with espionage and illegal stay in the country”.
Byekwaso said VC Dr Muganga’s status in Uganda “is not clear because he holds a foreign passport and has no work permit.”
On September 03, Dr Muganga’s lawyers and family members called for his release.
Hours later, the academic was out.
Muganga was released at about 9pm Friday night.
Sudhir Ruparelia’s son Rajiv of Ruparelia Group of Companies received Dr Muganga.
According to Frank Gashumba of the Abavandimwe Council of the Banyarwanda in Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni played a key role in ensuring the release of Muganga.
“We would also like to thank President Museveni for his intervention in the matter that saw the immediate release of Muganga,” said Gashumba as he welcomed the Victoria University VC and leader of Abavandimwe Council.
So, why did Museveni order the release of a man suspected to have been hired by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame to spy on Kampala for Kigali?
Before Commander-in-Chief of armed forces Gen Museveni ordered CMI and other security agencies to release the academic, he clearly studied the petition by Banyarwanda tribal leaders and Muganga’s family members, sources close to the brokering of the deal that saw Muganga out have told this publication on condition of anonymity.
Sources say that in his wisdom, Museveni believed the explanation presented by Muganga’s family and the Bavandimwe. Council, on the VC’s legality in Uganda.
“He has a Ugandan National Identity Card. The NIN is CM7603210KACCG. Dr. Muganga holds a Uganda ID and a Canadian citizen. He was born in Uganda. His mother still lives and is in Uganda,” Muganga’s family had explained earlier.
Museveni was also reportedly upset by the manner in which the security operatives arrested Muganga.
One of the leaders in the Abavandimwe Council, Gashumba, had also claimed that Muganga was being framed by people he [Gashumba] threatened to expose.
Muganga seems to have been caught up in the crossfire of the cold war between Kampala and Kigali that has seen escalation of bad blood between the two neighboring countries — at the centre of which is questionable intelligence gathering.
Kagame recently admitted that Kigali spies on other countries, including Uganda.
