While presiding over the commencement of the 2014/2015 year of the Judges, the Rwandan Head of State categorically said that nobody is above the law “Nta muntu usumba amategeko- Perezida Kagame”.

In theory the head of state is right, unfortunately in practice Kagame has become or has usurped all the responsibilities of the three main arms of the government. The controversial president has on number of occasions ordered laws to be made just to suit his interests. Just recently while addressing the residents of Nyabihu in Northern Province he asked the people if they would like to reinstate the death penalty. Would you like the death penalty to be reinstated? He asked? It would just be a blink of an eye”

This president does not care or respect his own Constitution; Article 140 (2) stipulates that the Judiciary shall be independent and separate from the legislative and executive branches of government. Paradoxically in Article 113(8) gives the power to the president to hire and fire high officials of both judiciary and prosecution. It stipulates that the President, Vice president and other judges the Supreme Court, the President and Vice president of the High Court and Commercial High Court   shall be appointed by the President of the Republic.  The Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor General are also appointed and fired by the President of the Republic. Therefore in a police state of a country like Rwanda or a totalitarian government with all those powers, saying the rule of law is not only mockery but an abuse of the terminology.

Rwanda is becoming a banana republic controlled by one man, the UK Independent news paper described Kagame as ‘’deludeddespot’’ when the South African Judge pronounced guilty to Four men out Six who attempted to assassinate the former Rwandan army Chief Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa. The Independent said that Kagame sees himself as the embodiment of his nation – and how he is egged on by fawning Western advisers such as Tony Blair and aid donors who prop up his murderous regime by providing 40 per cent of its budget. The Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher on Rwanda had no kind words for the Rwandan dictator “This is a significant case because the victim was such a high-profile opponent,” said Carina Tertsakian, senior researcher on Rwanda at Human Rights Watch. “It fits a well-documented pattern against opponents and critics that has gone on as long as this government has been in power.”

Where does president Kagame get the powers within his own laws to assassinate anybody let alone a former Rwandan General and one of the opposition leaders who could even sit in the same chair Kagame looted from Gen.Fred Rwigyema and others who were senior in both military and political credentials? Whether the Rwandan Law or international law, president Kagame has no any legal basis to use other nations as a springboard for his cruel methods of settling political disputes. Indeed, this is the same man who publicly boosted of strangling his former comrade Col. Patrick Karegeya in the South African Hotel; amazingly even his ministers of Defense James Kabarebe and Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo respectively echoed the same rhetoric of their boss. Do these honorable Ministers know that at an opportunity time will answer individually or collectively the conspiracy to attempted murder of Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa or murder of Col. Partick Karegeya respectively?

Again President Kagame using illegal means tried to assassinate Lt.  Joel Mutabazi after failing they hatched another trick of fabricated charges against him and later Lt. Joel Mutabazi was abducted from Uganda where he had sought protection. Amazingly none of the charges they used to apply for his extradition were brought against him. Despite all these illegal means of kidnapping   Lt. Joel Mutabazi who was Kagame’s former security officer, he is now facing charges of “terrorism” in Kigali. Prosecutors are demanding a life sentence. Nations after nations now know the true colors of president Kagame, after the above mentioned attempt on Mr Nyamwasa’s life in March; South African Justice Minister Jeff Radebe warned Rwanda that his nation “will not be used as a springboard to do illegal activities”. This led to a spate of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats.

Even the US, for so long turning a blind eye to Kagame’s atrocities and his pillaging of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has hit out at “politically motivated murders of prominent Rwandan exiles”. How then Kagame dare mention the word Rule of Law?

Unfortunately Britain welcomed this war criminal into the Commonwealth and continues to pump huge sums of aid into his country – nearly £400m over the course of the coalition – while hypocritically talking of promoting democracy and human rights. The Commonwealth should as a matter of agency warn president Kagame that business will not be as usual if he continues his unlawful methods of eliminating his opponents. It is also a duty of all Rwandans irrespective of their political affiliations to put in black book all these crimes of Kagame and the entire accomplice so that at an opportunity time they will be brought to account. Finally, President Kagame has no moral authority whatsoever, to talk about the rule of law.
Jacqueline Umurungi