Exiled Ugandan academic and writer Dr Stella Nyanzi has expressed her frustration with German bureaucracies and says it would be better to hand herself to President Museveni’s regime through the Ugandan embassy in Nairobi where she has been stuck for three days. Stella Nyanzi says she has been denied re-entry into Germany as a refugee.
Explaining how she continues to be frustrated by the German bureaucracies in Nairobi, Kenya, Stella Nyanzi worries that she could be abducted the same way her leader Dr Kizza Besigye was kidnapped from Nairobi last year.
She suspects that the German official denying her entry could be colluding with the regime in Kampala.
“I went to the German embassy in Nairobi in the morning. They confirmed what I have been saying: I am a Ugandan refugee in Germany with the correct travel documents. If Constantine – the German ILO is neither a r@c!st nor working with… Museveni, why did he deny me permission to enter Germany which supposedly gave me refuge?” wondered Nyanzi.
“If Constantine – the German ILO knows his job, why did he claim that my application for asylum has not yet received a decision? If Constanine – the German ILO – understands the precarity that Ugandan dissidents face in Nairobi, why did he force me to stay in Nairobi for Saturday night, Sunday night and now Monday night?”
Stella Nyanzi also narrated her experience at Germany Embassy where she screamed at officials who she said had no answers for her questions.
“At the German embassy in Nairobi, I was told that I have permission to stay in Germany but that I do not have permission to re-enter Germany. I asked them how I can stay in a place which I cannot re-enter. They stared back at me – without answers. I screamed at them. Their private male security guards came running. I ordered them to take back their… and instead send a private female security to secure my situation,” she shared.
“When a woman Afande, showed up, I screamed louder about my security being compromised by this blunder. My Kenyan lawyer calmly asked what should be done to remedy the situation, particularly because he was unable to guarantee my safety in Nairobi – once I left the embassy. He referred to the Nairobi-based abduction of my leader, Dr Kizza Besigye and the earlier Kisumu-based abduction of 36 members of my political party the FDC.”
The vocal writer further noted that the German embassy in Nairobi referred her to the Foreigners’ Office in Munich “for answers.”
“They instructed me to apply for a visa to re-enter my home. They were kind enough to charge me nothing for this visa. They claimed that the decision on the visa could only be taken by the Foreigners’ Office in Munich,” she noted.
“Why do refugees need a visa to return to their country of refuge? Am I a refugee? If I am a refugee, am I a human being? Do I have to re-apply for permission to return to my country of refuge every time I travel? Do I have the freedom to leave and enter my “home” as I please? Do I have any human rights? Do I have any dignity? Do all refugees go through this… dehuman!s@tion of just being another dispensable, forgettable irritation to the humdrum of the bureaucratic unjust machinery that processes “foreigners”?”
HIDE AND SEEK
She went on to share that indeed the Foreigners’ Office in Munich said that the German embassy in Nairobi could have taken the decision to give her her visa “immediately,” and that “they also verified again that I am a refugee with all the travel documents needed to return home.”
She added: “They wondered why I was not allowed onto the Eltihad Airways flight on Saturday. However, they still did not give me the re-entry visa. I still had to spend Monday night in Nairobi. I am still unsure what the problem is.”
As her quest to reenter Germany hangs in balance, Nyanzi has no kind words for “the Germans in power.”
“I am still the poor black Ugandan refugee woman at the mercy of an uncaring bureaucratic machine that totally neglects my three children wondering why their Mama remains vulnerable and exposed to… Museveni’s mechanisations in East Africa,” she wrote.
“This poor black Ugandan refugee woman is assumed to have enough means to feed, shelter, transport, secure and defend herself for day after day after day in Nairobi city. This poor black Ugandan refugee woman wonders how much more begging the Germans in power expect her to make before they allow her to go home, take a warm bath and change her br@ soaked with sweat released by anxiety.”
This experience has made her think of praying for a quick end to the regime in Uganda “so that Uganda can be free to transition into whichever new regime” that comes “instead of begging the Germans.
“Perhaps, instead of going to the German embassy in Nairobi at Plot 113 Riverside Road, I should go to the neighbouring Ugandan embassy in Nairobi and hand myself back to the dictatorship that made my life hell,” she regretted.
“Dealing with Museveni’s senseless brutality seems like much easier… than dealing with illogical German bureaucracies that still say I am a refugee even when I still cannot enter my home of refuge.”
It is not crystal clear why Stella Nyanzi is having troubles with the Germans. But in recent months, Stella Nyanzi has clashed with other Ugandans exiled in Germany.
In one incident, she took interest in the marriage troubles of novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija and his church wife Eva Basiima.
Her social media posts prompted PEN Germany, under its Writers in Exile Program, which initially rooted for Nyanzi, to warn her against sharing sensit!ve documents and other information on Basiima.
As Nyanzi was sharing shocking Kakwenza-Basiima information, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija revealed details of his failed relationship with a Mzungu woman. (See Details Here, There and Over There).
Meanwhile, as Stella Nyanzi puts the German official on the spot, the German Ambassador in Uganda stands accused by the UPDF of funding rebels plotting to remove Museveni. (See Details Here, There and Over There).
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