January 4, 2020

By Patience Kirabo

It looks like the Ugandan regime’s anti-Rwanda hostility seems to have entered people’s domestic affairs now.

That happened when the Ugandan husband of one Nyiramwiza Pascaline, a 25-year-old Rwandan national, cut off her right hand on the preceding December, 23, 2019.

Musinguzi Moses, Nyiramwiza’s husband of three years came home on the night of December 23 and they got into a heated quarrel. The man then chopped off his wife’s hand and continued with death threats, saying he would “kill me like Uganda has been killing Banyarwanda, and nothing will be done about it!”

Read: One more Rwandan formerly illegally detained in Uganda lucky to be dumped alive

Nyiramwiza was in Uganda since early 2016 where she met Musinguzi in the town of Fort Portal. They got married and had a child together.

During the terrible incident of domestic abuse Nyiramwiza managed to slip away from her husband and ran to the nearest police station for help. To her dismay, she was given all sorts of excuses by police that never took any action. They neither gave any help, nor registered her case after they learned she was a Munyarwanda.

Nyiramwiza, while still bleeding was helped by passersby on the road where she had fallen in a mini coma. She was later received by local authorities in Rwanda – in the Rubaya Sector of Gicumbi District after she had managed to cross.

The victim, with beating marks, deep cuts in the head and serious injuries on her body and a chopped off hand. She was immediately taken for medical help at Rubaya Health Center where she is currently being treated.

Read: Without good faith, Uganda-Rwanda crisis deepens

”Musinguzi did not only want to chop off my hand; he wanted to kill me!” said a dazed and frightened Nyiramwiza after waking up from her coma. “He said that I am not the only Munyarwanda who is going to die in Uganda, and no one will question him about it.

“I cannot comprehend what demons had possessed that man of recent”, Nyiramwiza added.

According to her, trouble began when she told the man that she wanted to stay home and take care of their child since she felt the child was not feeling well, instead of accompanying him to work as she normally does. The husband could hear none of it and started hurling insults and threatening to kill her.

It is then that Musinguzi started battering her. However, she says, she managed to raise an alarm and was saved by neighbors before he could finish her off. Nyiramwiza is a statistic among the many cases of Rwandan nationals being victimized in Uganda.

Another recent case is that of Nyirarudodo Drocelle, a 40-year-old lady and her daughter Uwineza Emerance 14 who were beaten to near death in Kisoro District.

Read: Two near-death victims of Ugandan security forces stumble into Rwanda

Victimization of Banyarwanda in Uganda has escalated from illegal incarcerations to abuse, violence, and harassment of anyone suspected of Rwandan descent, like the recent case of Sebudirimba John 60, who was badly beaten by members of the Ugandan military.

Sebudirimba, a Mufumbira, almost lost his life because the soldiers mistook him to be a Munyarwanda.

But now the harassment of Rwandans in Uganda has crossed, from security operatives picking on innocent Rwandan nationals, to locals harassing their Banyarwanda spouses.