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As the relationship between the two countries ebbed to its lowest point, one Uganda security officer that Rwanda pointed fingers at severally – for abducting and torturing its citizens – was Major General Abel Kandiho, then head of Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). Rwanda demanded that he be sacked, yet Ayebare – who was always warmly welcomed by Kagame – is his brother.
Kandiho was replaced days after Lt. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of Museveni and commander of land forces of the Uganda army, visited Rwanda President Paul Kagame last month. Three days after Kandiho was removed from the spy chief office, Rwanda announced that it would reopen the border that had been locked for almost three years.
Ayebare tells The Africa Report that he doesn’t agree with his brother on everything, and argues that it would be “disingenuous” to reduce the complexities of Rwanda-Uganda relationship to his brother.
Ayebare joined diplomacy in 1998 when he became first secretary at the foreign affairs ministry in Rwanda. In 2001, he was transferred to New York in the same role. Two years later, he was appointed ambassador to Rwanda and Burundi, and then transferred again to New York in 2006 as deputy permanent representative to the UN. He joined the International Peace Institute as Africa director in 2009.
He then served as the Senior Adviser on Peace and Security at the African Union’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York City from 2013 to March 2017. That same year he was later appointed Uganda’s ambassador to the UN, a position he still holds. Museveni added him to the portfolio of special envoy in June 2021.
Ayebare spoke to The Africa Report about his diplomatic career, the trust he has earned from Museveni and Kagame, the Rwanda-Uganda relationship and many other issues.
The interview responses have been edited for brevity.
‘Longest serving diplomat’
The Africa Report: In the last list of ambassadors that the president released, we saw more politicians taking diplomatic positions. You’re now the longest serving diplomat. Don’t you find yourself in a situation where you have no senior diplomats working with you and isn’t politics complicating diplomacy?
Adonia Ayebare: The appointment of ambassadors in every country is a prerogative of the president, even in the so-called democratic countries; and the imbalance between the career diplomats and the political appointees is always in favour of the political appointees in most countries. It’s not only in Uganda; diplomacy is political, it’s not a neutral profession. I have actually found that sometimes you get political appointees who actually do better than us career diplomats. Diplomacy is not rocket science, it’s not a preserve of career diplomats. You just need to have the right training and the right personality to really deliver.
