My parents fled from Rwanda to Uganda in 1959, says Dr Muganga

Details about the dual citizenship of Dr Lawrence Muganga, the embattled State Minister for Internal Affairs-designate, have emerged in his book about the art of students’ learning in which he indicated that his parents fled from Rwanda to Uganda in 1959, and returned in 1996.

In his book authored in 2018 titled: You Can't Make "Fish Climb Trees: Transform the Art of Learning for Maximum Success Beyond the Classroom with Authentic and Student-Centred Schooling, Dr Muganga wrote that his parents fled ethnic violence in Rwanda in 1959.

“I was born, raised and educated in Uganda where my parents fled from the ethnic violence in Rwanda in 1959. As members of the Tutsi population, my parents felt oppressed in Rwanda, yet were accepted by the government of Uganda,” Dr Muganga wrote in his book.

Appointments Committee rejects Dr Muganga over multiple citizenship

President Museveni appointed Dr Muganga as the State minister for Internal Affairs. However, last week, he was rejected by the Parliament’s Appointments Committee on allegations that he could not convince them that he only had Ugandan citizenship as per the immigration laws.

Dr Muganga denied holding three citizenships of Uganda, Rwanda and Canada. He said his parents were born in Uganda and buried in Mukono District.

Nevertheless, he told a different story in his book in which he referred to himself as a child of a refugee.

“Like many other children of Rwandan origin whose parents had sought refuge and lived in Uganda since the 1950s, my first experience of school was as a refugee student. The conditions were difficult,” Dr Muganga wrote.

He wrote that his father studied up to primary school four in Rwanda when he dropped out of school to look after his grandfather’s cattle.

Dr Muganga wrote that his parents spent time in the refugee camp he did not name, before they left to work on a farm owned by a Ugandan, where his mother sold leftover milk to take care of him and other family members.

In the book, Dr Muganga does not indicate where he was born. But in an interview with Mr Kamara, a host of NTV’s talkshow, On the spot, Dr Muganga said he was born in Butaleja District in eastern Uganda, albeit his Ugandan passport indicates that he was born in Mukono District.

According to Dr Muganga, his father fruitlessly convinced his mother, a primary two dropout, to allow his last-born (Dr Muganga) to quit formal education for cattle-keeping. Dr Muganga said his mother refused and resorted to sacrifice through doing blue collar jobs to raise his school fees.

He said he had to keep rabbits that enabl