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The Rwandan court yesterday released Violette Uwamahoro from the talons and fangs of the notorious Rwandan Judiciary unconditionally. There are many questions that remain answered, why in the first place this lady was arrested? If she was arrested, why she was not produced to the court in the designated time by law? The Rwandan law stipulates that if a suspect is arrested by police, they have five days, then the prosecution has another 5 days, if they have not completed their investigations they can produce the suspect to the court which will sanction further detention.

We don’t know where they had detained this lady, until she leaves Rwanda we shall never know exactly who and where she was detained.  After her bail she was heard saying on both BCC and VOA that she will only answer some questions but those related to her arrest should be reserved.

It took the UK Foreign Office, the work of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch intervention to release this innocent lady. The current Minister of Constitutional Affairs Mr. Uwizeyimana Evode should not only be ashamed but it would be advisory to resign as he was very critical to such illegal detention of suspects. Uwamahoro was accused of involvement in a plot against Rwanda’s government.

In which book of law does this offence fall? Is it treason? How could this lady plan to plot against the Rwandan government?  In fact they are many likes of Violette Uwamahoro who have disappeared or just vanished, killed, incarcerated and up to this day their families have never seen them again.

This lady was just lucky that she holds dual Citizenship, the likes of Maj. Emanuel Nkubana, Col. Kizza, Maj. Alex Ruzindana, Andrew Rwisereka Kagwa, just to mention a few, we shall never know their graves or killers.

Rwanda is an authoritarian regime that is persecuting the opposition at home and killing those in exile. Indeed, Uwamahoro is only guilty of being a wife to the Rwandan dissident Rukundo who is opposed to the brutal regime of Kagame and RPF.

Kagame’s lust for power means that he will use all means necessary to consolidate it, his appetite to run for another term did not come as a surprise to many who knew his cunning behavior. President Kagame played these cards right from the bush war when he declined the Chairmanship of the RPF and instead rent it to Col Alex Kanyarengwe who was later sidelined and poisoned. After the taking over Kigali in 1994 at the climax of genocide, again Kagame declined to be the next President instead a less known Pasteur Bizimungu was nominated by Kagame himself to be the President and after only 4 years Kagame took back the power from Bizimungu.

In a surprise address notable for its condescension and wholly misplaced sense of noblesse oblige, Kagame suggested he was reluctantly bowing to popular pressure. “You requested me to lead the country again after 2017. Given the importance and consideration you attach to this, I can only accept. But I don’t think that what we need is an eternal leader,” he said.

Kagame is correct in one respect: Rwanda does not need an eternal leader. Unfortunately, this is what it seems to have got. Kagame will win again in 2017, not because he is Rwanda’s answer to Abraham Lincoln but because he has ensured there is no viable alternative. As Rwandans we should not be coward by these arbitrarily arrests of innocent people like Uwamahoro, we should also put aside our (OPPOSITION) ideological differences and fight this man who is determined to be the eternal ruler of our country.

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels.