When the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) evaded Rwanda in the late 1990’s, it relied on Uganda’s government and its National Resistance Army as their main source of supplies and logistic support. We relied on the Ugandan army on weaponry, ammunition and even withdraw routes whenever needed.

Apart from the government support, Uganda like all our neighbouring countries harboured countless Rwanda refuges and sympathising citizens than cared to support our cause.

Most of these Rwandans were very wealthy and gave most of their hard earned wealth to the Rwandese Patriotic Front Cadres worked around the clock to convince everyone how RPF was going to make a historical change.

These sponsors gave as much as they could afford, but unfortunately few of them now are eligible to work or even live in the country they fought for. Many of the then RPA supporters who helped RPF to get into power have since been persecuted by Gen Paul Kagame.

I remember a few years before the RPA evasion in 1990, people in around our villages in Uganda where I lived sold most of their livestock (cattle, goats, and chickens) in order to finance the attack on General Juvenal Habyalimana’s dictatorial rule.

Myself as   a foreigner in Uganda, as I grew up it was beyond my understanding that we will ever have the right to settle and become free. When President Museveni finally helped Gen Fred Rwigema and his forces to return to the home most of us never set foot in, it was everyone’s responsibility to use any available effort for the just cause.

After the four years struggle which saw the loss of our beloved leaders, the genocide that took millions of lives and the unwinding regional wars we were left with the infamous unreflective His Excellence, Commander in Chief, entrepreneur president, Major Gen Paul Kagame winner of every mockery award.

Kagame’s unreflective behaviours and financial hunger has led him to hunt individuals that helped him become who he is today. People like Trilbert Rujugiro, Sam Nkusi, Edgar Rwangabwoba, Valens Kajeguhakwa, Kalinda of sweet bread, Kajangwe, Kalisa BCDI, Donat Kananura, Gregory Karuretwa, Pascal Nouveau-riche, Haroun Kalimba who gave away his wealth and personal participation in the bush and many more.

Most of these individuals have personally been humiliated, detained and robbed by the person who was supposed to protect them Gen Kagame.

Paul Kagame has portrayed himself as a god in our society for the people to be afraid of him. Unfortunately he can kill or imprison whoever he feels uncomfortable with because he does not take advice or challenges.

Kagame labelled his colleagues killers or unaccountable people just to get rid of them. He is the man who can do something that gobsmacks everyone around him and blindly believe that nobody is sensitive or recognises what he has done.

In the year 1997 while I was still under Kagame’s close protection unit, Mrs Jeannette Kagame for some reasons realised that Paul Kagame her husband was spending most of his time at Mr Kajangwe’s home, this was unusual because Paul Kagame is not a man who likes socialising.

I remember a day while on Kagame’s convoy at senior officer’s mess at around 9:00 pm, I was instructed by Maj Willy Rwagasana to take four soldiers with me and save Mrs Kajangwe from the intruders who were allegedly trying to enter her house.  As we drove off Willy called on the hand held radio to tell me to drive fast and find out what was in Kajangwe’s garden.

We drove obviously quickly with alarms, horns, and full beam lights as was our norms of VIP protections and intervention.  It was embarrassing because nothing was there when we arrived at Kajangwe’s home I called on the radio to inform Willy who fed the information to Paul Kagame that there was no one at the residence of Mrs Kajangwe.

At the time Mr Kajangwe was in America and he was scared to come back to Rwanda because he knew that his wife was having an affair with Paul Kagame, and obviously he had run for his dear life.

Willy told me to come back to the officer’s mess but surprisingly when we arrived, the phone call from Mrs Kajangwe rang again and this time she was crying and stated that someone was forcing the door in.  We were told to go back this time and arrest those who were on the door. It was a bit silly because when we arrived again no one was there, I reported to Willy that no one was there Willy asked us to stay there and that meant that Paul Kagame’s convoy stayed with only one car excluding his own.

At around 1:00 am Paul Kagame arrived at Kajangwe’s residence where he stayed until 5:00 am in the morning. It was obvious that Mrs Kajangwe did not hold any position in the government and so the conversation was a bit emotional or something else.

It was not until Jeannette exchanged words with Mrs Kajangwe that Paul’s visits were reduced. Days after, Kagame had to visit Gregory Karuretwa home to have a good counsel with Mrs Karuretwa a motherly figure to Kagame. This is the lady who had arranged Kagame’s marriage with Jeannette years before and she is actually his God mother.

It was after this visit that Mrs Kajangwe was closely escorted by one of our vehicle to the airport and made sure she boarded the plane to America to find her husband.  Kagame to meet Jeannette, this lady was always the peace maker of Kagame’s

Mrs Karuretwa looked after Kagame while still a teenager in Kampala. Mr Karuretwa was a wealthy man who sponsored the war and played a fatherly role to the young Kagame who later mistreated and impoverished him.

Likewise Mr Kajangwe sponsored the war like many others for our return to Rwanda and used his own money. He later became his personal friend due to the fact that Jeannette grew up with both Mr and Mrs Kajangwe back in Burundi.

Mr Kajangwe was personally betrayed by the man he thought to be a friend Paul Kagame. However Kajangwe and family are not alone, the list of people Kagame has betrayed is endless, from comrades to friends and actually his own family.

Paul Kagame’s  has betrayed so many people that he cannot remember himself;  research shows that in order to know where we are heading we need to reflect on where we’ve been, this is a generic term for those intellectual and effective activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to a new understanding and appreciation.

After many years that I spent besides President Paul Kagame I realised that, there are many crucial leadership skills that Paul Kagame lacks and they include reflection as well as communication skills. Reflective skills would have helped Kagame remember where he came from and avoided the betrayal incurred to his colleagues and friends.

Communication is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another.  It involves a sender transmitting an idea, information, or feeling to a receiver. Communication occurs only if the receiver understands the exact information or idea that the sender intended to transmit. These problems have damaged Paul Kagame’s performance and made him isolated after losing the important people that he desperately needs for our country’s best interest.

As we all know how decisions are made today in Rwanda we can sense where the country is heading. Looking at the rise of Kagame, we can only see the victims some from freedom fighters that died during the war on the battle field or those killed by Kagame’s intelligence network after questioning his competence.

This brings questions especially after losing all of the fourteen main sponors, who sponsored the RPF war. Kagame’s family had nothing financial to offer apart from the old Tata lorry (Mabeko) which he had robbed from the one Mukasa of Mpigi town while he was head of Basima house after accusing him of being Nkwanga’s supporter and killing him.

Kagame’s betrayal continues as we speak prisons and other safe houses are full of men and women being accused of false allegations. That is our Kagame the leader who is praised by the ignorant and encouraging people to scrap off the presidential term limits just because he used the aid wisely by building the roads, presidential jets, ballistic and scud missiles strong weapons, and the sky scrapper that belongs to himself when normal citizens cannot afford the basics.

 

Noble Marara.