“Namibia Denies Extension for Kabaka’s Visit Amid Rising Pressure from Mengo”

Windhoek, (Namibia):- The Government of Namibia has declined a visa extension request for the Kabaka of Buganda, His Majesty Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II amid pressure from subjects of the country’s largest monarchy to see their King returned to Lubiri, Mengo.

Namibia state broadcaster (NBC) citing a top government official confirmed the development on Wednesday saying the King who has been recuperating at a health facility in Okunguari, Kunene Province, approximately 700kms away from the Namibian capital, Windhoek is set to return to Kampala upon expiration of his current visa.

The Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation in Namibia is said to have rejected a request to extend Kabaka’s visa, even as Okonguari Psychotherapeutic Centre director Dr Daleen de Lange sought a further stay of the King at the health facility.

“Given the above and having checked the records, I wish to inform you that the request for an extension for Kabaka Mutebi II is declined,” Mr Penda Naanda, the Ministry’s Executive Director responded to Okonguari Psychotherapeutic Centre’s July 9 request.

The development comes just weeks after Uganda’s envoy to Pretoria Paul Amoru early this month expressed displeasure with the inundation of its missions abroad- and the harassment of its diplomatic agents by some Ugandan nationals over the Kabaka’s stay in Okonguari.

“These individuals alleged that their king had been kidnapped and exiled in Namibia, even though the Namibian government only became aware of the kabaka’s presence through the media and our diplomatic note on May 31,” the diplomat wrote on July 10.

The five clan chiefs accused of causing unnecessary are said returned to Uganda on the night of July 12, as per Monitor reports.

Relatedly, the Kabaka, in a pre-recorded video released by the kingdom on July 1, offered hope to his subjects, saying he “expected to return home soon.”