Cyomoro Ivan with Mother Janeatte Kagame

In summary: Words sometimes serve as a smoke screen to obscure the truth rather than as a searchlight to reveal it.

We Rwandans have become accustomed to the smoke screens the Kagame’s keep spewing in a bid to mask or legitimize their lies and deceitful agendas. Have you noticed that every time they return from a month long holiday in America, a new ego-boosting slogan is produced to divert our attention from the problems at hand? “AGACIRO”, “NDI UMUNYARWANDA”, “KWIGIRA”……. Now comes the cry for human trafficking! Why is Madame Nyiramongi raising human trafficking of Rwandans at this point in our politics, when there are unanswered questions to human bodies floating in Lake Rweru, the controversial BBC documentary (Rwanda’s Untold Story) in which exiled former Army General Kayumba Nyamwasa, other former RDF officers and renowned academicians blatantly accuses President Kagame for downing President Habyarimana’s  plane thus sparking a genocide, the cowardly acts of falsely imprisoning military officers on blatant lies, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR47/004/2012,

the mass disappearances of men whose spouses roam Rwandan prisons looking for them, the retrenching of civil servants for lack of resources coming into the national treasury and the list goes on…………..  Perhaps, this is spin master Andrew Mwenda”s advice to create smoke screens for his masters President Kagame and Jeannette to divert our attention.

President Kagame busy at work welcoming refugees back home

On Sept 22 2014 the first lady spoke at Emory University School of Public health in Atlanta, Georgia where she said…“It is my hope that we can aspire to a world where we are all attentive and mindful of the social injustices that occur around us”.  Mrs Kagame said it is her dream to see a world that is “more just, more humane and a better home for all of us”.  Words sometimes serve as a smoke screen to obscure the truth rather than as a searchlight to reveal it.

Of course, these are paid trips she makes to attract donations for her pet project Imbuto Foundation that supposedly advances girls education. However, Madame First lady is behaving like Marie Antoinette, oblivious to the mass killings, poverty, disappearances, imprisonment and policing of Rwanda meted out by her husband! She is delusional when she talks about social injustices when she and her husband are obvious abusers of human rights! Please Mrs Kagame , have several seats! The hypocrisy of it all is nauseating and dizzying! Remember that the Kagames have spent a month in the US attending Rwanda Day, celebrity gala’s in Central Park, hobnobbing with the New York elites such as Grace Hightower, wife to actor Robert De Niro.

http://www.therwandan.com/blog/rwanda-day-at-least-us5m-up-in-smoke/

 

Zoom in to October 9 2014 where Mrs Kagame is addressing a fully packed Rwandan parliament about the need to take action against human trafficking, gender based violence and drug epidemic amongst the youth by pulling at the heart strings of Rwandan parents…….In essence, we ask Madame First lady to provide the statistics to warrant a national outcry.  Surely, while I do not doubt that these atrocious things happen, should they take precedence over dead bodies floating dead bodies and enforced disappearances of thousands of Rwandans.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/16/rwanda-spate-enforced-disappearances

Where is the President? Why hasn’t he held his monthly press conferences to address these issues (even though we are so sure he shall rubbish them)? At a time when his leadership is needed where is he?

Typical Paul Kagame, when the going gets tough, send in your chatter boxes.

 

Madame Dragon Lady

Could Jeannette Kagame be desperately trying to stage-manage her entry into politics using all sorts of platforms to appeal to women and the masses?  Let us look at the indicators.

  1. The first lady has been behind the recent purging of women cadres in RPF because she knows they are openly opposed to the President’s re-election to a third term or lifting of presidential term limits. How? Her recent cozy relationship with the Minister of Gender Oda Gasinzigwa has bore fruit. At a recent general meeting of RPF members, the minister openly castigated some women cadres for “bad behavior” saying they needed to face a disciplinary committee to answer for their critical gossip. Astonishingly, those mentioned are the “original” RPF women cadres who have served RPF for over 20years. Those are Mary Baine, Rose Kabuye, Immy Camarade, joy Mukanyange, Gahongaire Anne……By singling these women out, Mrs Kagame hopes to render them useless, tarnish their reputations thus reducing their clout both within/out of RPF. Two of the aforementioned women’s spouses are currently imprisoned on tramped up charges!

 

  1. Inyumba Aloyisia has always been Mrs Kagame’s archilles heel. Inyumba was the single most powerful woman in RPF because she was a formidable women mobiliser, fundraiser and the Presidents confidante. She was instrumental in luring exiled Hutu politicians to join RPF and campaigning for their appointments to prominent ministries and institutions. She lobbied alongside all the women associations, “Benishyaka”, “Pro-femme twese hamwe” and was respected within these organizations because she championed hutu women to become active at a time when they were marginalized.
  • Inyumba was a signatory to RPF bank accounts which meant she was privy to highly confidential financial matters and wielded financial muscle and because of that she had access to President Kagame often to the chagrin of many including the first lady! It has been 2years since her death, a death many question today because of its rapidity and especially because it came after a brief reconciliation with the Kagames after “falling out” with them. Inyumba mobilized funds for the transformation of Bugesera while serving as the Governor to that area in the early 2000’s. Thus, she founded 2 girl’s schools, Maranyundo Girls secondary school and Gashora girl’s secondary school. This endeared her to many women. The Ministry of Gender performed its best while she was the Minister. So as you can see, she grew to be a thorn in Madame first lady’s side! Today, Aloysia Inyumba’s husband Richard Masozera sits unemployed. With Inyumba out of her way, Jeannette kagame has hijacked girl’s education and taken on newer platforms of human trafficking and drug abuse to appeal to the mostly female audience but also because these causes attract foreign aid/donations and pull at the heartstrings of a Rwandan parent thus softening her image to that of a caring mother.

 

  • The much talked about women dominated parliament is another entity Mrs Kagame has targeted. If you look closely at the composition of women in the Rwandan parliament/senate, they have been vetted and handpicked by RPF from grassroots levels either because they fulfilled a mission and were rewarded with a seat in parliament or they are active intelligence agents of the much dreaded Jack Nziza such as Jacqueline Mukangira while others have a close relation to Madame First lady such as Constance Rwaka. Many are briefed on how to vote for passing bills and 99% of these women are new faces, many of them very naïve about the inner workings of RPF. This parliament is prepared to lift presidential term limits so that Kagame runs for a third term in 2017. My suspicions about Jeannette’s new cause of “human trafficking” is soon going to put in place stiffer roadblocks preventing young Rwandans from leaving the country in the name of “protecting” them from being trafficked. They know many young Rwandans are fleeing the country for greener pastures and a repressive government.

The unvarnished truth about the human bodies floating in lake Rweru, the false imprisonment of senior officers, the disappearances of Rwandans, the unanswered questions about who shot Habyarimana’s plane that eventually sparked the genocide in 1994 and the desperate economic situation in Rwanda cannot be easily hidden by the smoke screens of human trafficking and drug abuse.

 

Mrs Kagame, if you must enter politics or divert our attention to protect your husband, please do so without insulting our intelligence. There is an Ethiopian saying translated to convey this message, “Mr Hyena, if you must eat me, do so without making any excuses”.