Gafirita a former Rwandan soldier who was abducted in Nairobi hours after he was called to testify at an international inquiry into the country’s genocide had accused Kagame of triggering genocide.

Emile Gafirita aka Emmanuel Mugisha

Emmanuel Mughisa claimed that he had evidence that President Kagame of Rwanda, then a rebel commander, had ordered his troops to shoot down the country’s presidential plane in 1994, killing President Habyarimana of Rwanda and President Ntaryamira of Burundi and unleashing three months of violence in which almost a million people died.

Mr Kagame’s government, which receives £90 million a year in British aid, has consistently denied the allegations. The official history of Rwanda blames hardline Hutus, angry at Mr Habyarimana for ceding power to the Tutsi rebels, for firing the missiles that brought down the plane.

Although no one has claimed responsibility for Mr Mughisa’s disappearance, he joins a long list of Mr Kagame’s opponents who have disappeared or died.

Mr Mughisa, who was also known as Emile Gafarita, was last seen outside his home in a suburb of Nairobi shortly before midnight on November 13. His neighbours said that they heard a scuffle and saw two men handcuff him and bundle him into a vehicle.

“The police said they didn’t arrest him, and this means the conclusion is he was forcibly removed,” said François Cantier, Mr Mughisa’s lawyer.

Mr Cantier, who founded Lawyers Without Borders and worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda after the genocide, said that he knew of two witnesses who had disappeared and “other witnesses who had to flee the country because of security”.

A few hours before Mr Mughisa disappeared, Mr Cantier sent him a summons from the judges Marc Trévidic and Nathalie Poux, calling him to testify on December 8. Although both men knew the risks of testifying at the French tribunal, Mr Cantier said that his client was determined to be heard.

France has hosted a number of inquiries because the plane’s three crew were French. An inquiry in 2006 by Jean-Louis Bruguière, a French magistrate, accused Mr Kagame and his close associates of plotting the attack. In 2010 Jean Mutsinzi, a Rwandan judge, found that Hutu extremists were to blame.

Joel Mutabazi a former bodyguard, told The Times in 2012 that Mr Kagame was involved. He was later abducted from a United Nations safe house in Uganda, smuggled to Rwanda and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2011, Scotland Yard warned two Rwandans living in England that the Rwandan government posed an “imminent threat” to their lives.

Rwanda’s former head of intelligence was found strangled in Johannesburg on January 1, after he fell out with Mr Kagame. In August a South African court convicted four men of trying to kill the exiled army chief Kayumba Nyamwasa.

A lawyer for the Habyarimana family said it was incomprehensible that Mr Mughisa’s disappearance was a coincidence. He accused the French government of failing to protect him, because they feared his testimony would jeopardise their relations with Rwanda.

Mr Kagame’s spokeswoman declined to comment.

Jerome Starkey
Africa Correspondent
The Times