Visa-snubbed Ugandan king ‘grateful’

Long-serving Ugandan King Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, who was denied a visa extension by the Namibian government, has returned to Uganda.

This was confirmed by Uganda’s deputy high commissioner to Namibia, Kintu Nyago, yesterday.

“As the government of Uganda, we are grateful for Namibia having hosted our king. He responded well to treatment and is back home,” Nyago said.

Mutebi (69), who has frequently been hospitalised in Germany, travelled to Namibia in April and was undergoing treatment at a health facility in the Outjo area for an undisclosed medical condition.

Mutebi applied for a visa extension for his stay in Namibia, however, the government denied his visa renewal request following the expiry of his visa after 90 days.

Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration and Safety and Security executive director Etienne Maritz on Friday said Mutebi’s private visit to Namibia generated much controversy with some of his subjects.

Maritz said Mutebi’s subjects started making allegations that he was being illegally detained in Namibia and that the Namibian government conspired with the Ugandan authorities to abduct their king. The subjects further demanded his unconditional release from ‘detention’ in Namibia.

“Some of the unscrupulous subjects of the Buganda Kingdom started organising and having demonstrations at Namibia’s diplomatic missions around the world, demanding for Namibia to release their king from detention and thereby threatening the security of Namibian diplomatic officials in the process, which is not allowed under international law,” Maritz said.

This not only put the security of Namibia’s personnel abroad at risk but interfered greatly with the operations and security of Namibia’s diplomatic missions, he added.

“Such malicious allegations were not only meant to tarnish Namibia’s respected reputation and standing in the eyes of the international community, but were also meant to undermine the good bilateral relations that exist between the two countries,” Maritz said.

He further said despite engagements with the Ugandan authorities and the royal family to stop the disruptions at Namibia’s diplomatic missions, the disruptions continued unabated.

As such, based on the good bilateral relations between the two countries and the security considerations of diplomatic staff, in line with Namibia’s laws and in accordance with international law, Namibia’s government was unable to extend Mutebi’s visa, Maritz said.

He noted that the government thoroughly briefed the Ugandan authorities, Mutebi’s palace and his medical team in Namibia on the reasons for the non-extension of his visa.

“Namibia is a sovereign state and has the right to implement the laws of the Republic of Namibia and international law,” Maritz said.

Recently, Buganda traditional chiefs travelled to Namibia to seek the truth about the king’s health, sparking diplomatic concerns and a rebuke from Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni.

“I request all the Ugandans to stop embarrassing Uganda by opportunistically trying to show how much they are for the kabaka [king],” Museveni said, according to the BBC.

The delegation, which was said to have travelled without the knowledge of either the Buganda Kingdom or the Ugandan authorities, was briefly detained and questioned by Namibian officials, who reportedly asked if they had authorisation to see the monarch.

Mutebi is the king of Buganda, Uganda’s largest monarchy, which traces its origins back to the 13th century.