When news first broke out that 16 young Rwandans had fled their country and sought asylum in Uganda. It was gleefully picked up by international media who had a field day with it. It was not enough that foreign media houses out did themselves in hyping up the story, they gave the students ample attention in a bid to convince their audience that all was not well in Rwanda. It later emerged that the students were part of over 500 students whose exam results had been cancelled for various malpractices. The reasons they gave to Ugandan authorities was that they were being harassed by Rwandan officials over their exam results, when the storyline did not sell, they made a 360 degree turn and claimed that they had fled forced recruitment into the M23 rebels in Eastern Congo! The poor students, it appears, were victims of their immaturity and inadvertently ended up being used as pawns by some people who have no interests in their welfare but are playing cheap political games. The 14 boys and two girls’ shortsightedness of seeking an easy way out without toiling is the reason they are stranded in Kampala, weaving tall tales in the hope of getting a sympathetic ear and a free ride in the process. Hopefully, they have understood that their future is linked to the hard work they put in and that their manipulators do not care about them, and only used them to tarnish Rwanda’s image, a task they have miserably miscalculated.
