Kagame ‘s sycophants will tell you that Rwanda is a haven of free speech but that only applies to those who speak in praise of his regime and its narrative. Every praise is permitted and considered patriotic, any derail from that “everything is going well ” narrative and you end up in prison (if you are among the lucky ones who do not die in what have now become usual and very telling circumstances).

Cyuma’s youtube activities had become so interesting and refreshing that he had to be stopped. He reported on issues that made the regime uncomfortable, he took his camera to the forsaken neighbourhoods, beyond the manicured lawns of the main avenues of Kigali. He gave the taxi moto rider the opportunity to be heard, he visited the slums. In a country where image is everything, where fake it till you make it has become the worrying motto; reporting on a bed bug outbreak, or hunger will land anyone in trouble. It is considered bad news and so it is labelled unpatriotic. But that is the reality of the other Kigali. The other Rwanda.

How long can this other Rwanda remain hidden when it is the daily reality of so many?

Kagame’s repression is inviting the young to league against him. Youtubers are a global phenomenon and making it illegal in Rwanda is not going to work. Kagame has forgotten the vigour and determination of youth that took him to the bush to fight for the Rwanda he felt entitled to.

He keeps forgetting that there is now a generation of Rwandans who cannot be intimidated with the past, a generation that hungers for equal rights, a generation that is not interested in exceptions and that will not be lied to nor bullied into silence to for much longer.

Noble Marara