Rajapaksa’s business class return air ticket (Colombo-Dubai-Entebbe on May 11 and Entebbe-Dubai-Colombo on May 15) alone cost Rs. 425,000.

In a letter to foreign secretary Chitranganie Wagiswara dated 05 May 2016, Rajapaksa’s private secretary Udith Lokubandara requested that steps be taken to pay for all expenses of the tour.

Along with Rajapaksa, a team comprising Gamini Lokuge, Lohan Ratwatte, Udith Lokubandara, Dhanasiri Amaratunga, Mahendra F. Sampath, Neville Wanniarachchi, Saman Udaya K. Amarasinghe and Hasitha H. Wickremarachchi toured Uganda.

Courts did not permit Rajapaksa’s son Yoshitha to undertake the visit despite a request.

Rajapaksa went to Uganda at the invitation of Ugandan foreign affairs state minister Henry Oryem Okello.