President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda this Saturday evening hosted former Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta at Statehouse Entebbe for private talks.
Kenyatta is currently the facilitator of the peace talks in eastern DR Congo. It should be remembered that Uganda has troops in the DRC pursuing ADF rebels and also has a contingent deployed under the EAC force.
Last month Kenyatta was in DRC where he called for a “peaceful resolution” of the crisis in the Eastern part of the DRC.
The M23 rebel movement which recently had captured large swathes of territory are demanding for peace talks with the Kinshasa government as a prerequisite for their surrender.
However, the Kinshasa authorities have rejected any negotiations with the rebels accusing them of working for interests of other countries. Kinshasa demands for the disarmament and cantonment of its troops without conditions.
Uhuru Kenyatta has called for the various regional peace initiatives to be pursued, so that “the Congolese are able to talk to each other to resolve the problems of this great nation”.
His trip to Kampala could also bring on table the security and humanitarian situation in neighbouring DRC. About 2 million people have been displaced by the armed conflict in the East.
‘I received former President of the Republic of Kenya, H.E Uhuru Kenyatta, in his capacity as the facilitator of the Democratic Republic of Congo Peace Process. We had meaningful discussions and I thank him for coming,’ Uganda Presidency said after the meeting.
President Félix Tshisekedi has recently accused the EAC force, which includes Kenyan, Ugandan, Burundian, and South Sudanese contingents of cohabiting with the M23 and suggested that it would have to leave the country at the end of June if its “mandate is not fulfilled”.
The presence of the EAC force has been extended until September.