By: Noble Marara

After receiving the information regarding the attack of Rwanda in 1990, like many other young men of that time Dr. Emmanuel Ndahiro could not wait to join them and offer any help he could afford excluding becoming an active duty soldier. He was young and energetic however as a newly qualified doctor he believed that he would be able to serve in different disciplines and not a frontline soldier. He quickly joined the high command as Paul Kagame’s personal Doctor. Soon after Paul Kagame started advising him to join the army however Dr. Ndahiro refused repeatedly. President Kagame realised that Dr Ndahiro was not willing to join the forces even though he was given the choice to come back in his position as his personal doctor after the training. He was eventually forced to comply with the training but with explanation that it is for the sake of his own security, self-defence and the use of guns in any case of emergency, due to living in danger zones. He was taken to attend military drills without his consent. That is how Dr. Ndahiro became a soldier and he served as Kagame’s Doctor until we captured Rwanda.

He had become one of the trusted men that surrounded Kagame and was promoted to Major from Captain after a few years. He was continuously promoted during his time at Kagame’s right hand side to the extent of making him a colonel. I remember while working among Kagame’s entourage Dr. Ndahiro was always around, a clever young officer who always presented smart on duty, always on missions taking care of Paul Kagame’s psychological as well as physical well-being.

I remember just after Kagame was sworn in as president, he developed an upset stomach. This was something very confidential, as a driver who was close to my President I was able to see a glimpse of what was happening to him. The head of the cooks who prepared food for President Kagame had been detained in a different cell, with the rest detained in separate rooms for forty eight hours. This was to wait for Dr. Ndahiro to bring the results president Kagame’s samples to assess if he had been poisoned.

Dr Ndahiro was trusted and appointed in different positions after a few years, to even becoming the head of intelligence. Dr. Ndahiro was once too anxious to join the army and now enjoyed the post of shedding blood even to the extent of ordering killings. He sacrificed his profession working as a medical Doctor and violated the primary oath of a doctor “do no harm.”

He ordered a number of killings including Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, even attempted to kill his former boss Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa. After failing to finalise this mission Col Ndahiro was sacked by his boss Paul Kagame.

Col Ndahiro who led the intelligence and security services (NISS) was fired by the Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame. Col Ndahiro and Jack Nziza were accused of the attempted assassination on the Gen Kayumba. Sources close to the Rwandan Intelligence services indicated that the sudden replacement of Col Ndahiro was consecutive to the trials in South Africa where he was among the targeted suspected in the South African prosecution. Apart from that his wife, Umulinga, had ganged with Kagame’s wife Janet Kagame working collaboratively together to stop Col Ndahiro from going back to his Ex-girlfriend Linda Bihire who had been appointed a minister after Col Ndahiro mislead Kagame about his personal relationship with her. Linda Bihire spent more than ten years in London and reportedly had a child with Col Ndahiro in the early 1990’s. Ms Bihire had acquired a degree in Engineering and was willing to work for her nation; however when Col Ndahiro introduced her to Paul Kagame he never explained that he had a child to her and that she was among his ex-girlfriends. So when the group of women including Umulinga, Ndahiro’s main wife, with Janet Kagame approached the President and explained who Linda Bihire really was she was then sacked.

Col Ndahiro’s misery continued when Linda Bihire’s cousin formerly known as Kanobana now Janvier Murenzi was appointed in the president’s office as head of finances, stole millions of francs and invested the money in housing and transport service of his own. He was later arrested and is still in prison today.

Accordingly to reliable source close to the Office of the President and Rwanda’s Ministry of Defense, Col Dr. Ndahiro Emmanuel, a historical confidant and former spy of President Kagame has been denied entry to the US prestigious Fort Leavenworth military academy. Though a Colonel in the Rwandan army, many senior army officers confirm that Ndahiro is almost a civilian, who was only trained for a few weeks just to receive basic skills. adding that he has never attended any formal or informal military training like cadet. One senior officer at the rank of General, when asked about this information, had a big hearty laugh, and then said: how did he become a Colonel in the first place any way? Adding that this guy (read Ndahiro) is a proper civilian, and during the struggle he was always with Kagame eating sausages and gossiping in Kabale and Mbarara while me and others were on the receiving end (fighting wars).

In 1990, President Paul Kagame, by then a Major in then Uganda army was sent by President Museveni to study at Fort Leavenworth military academy. President Kagame, under the orders of President Museveni ordered to cut short his military training to take over the RPF/RPA leadership after the death of the later Major General Fred Gisa Rwigema.

In July 2011, during an army reshuffle, Ndahiro was axed from the NSS (National Security Services) position and has since been replaced by Lt. General Karake Karenzi. During his office tenure at NSS, it is reported that Ndahiro was involved into many corruption deals, deaths of civilians and soldiers, while many others flee to exile for fear of his ruthless way of killing.

Kagame relegated him to a little known job of being in charge of history and research in the Ministry of Defense, he was also regularly seen in Kigali central library. According to his close friends, Ndahiro shared with them that President Kagame did not have the courtesy to inform him about his decision to drop him from the NSS juicy job. A family member told one of our reporters that Ndahiro collapsed in the office and was taken to hospital when he learnt from Rwanda Television and radio Rwanda that he had been dropped from the NSS position. Since then, he has never recovered from the shock and is still nursing the traumatic experience.

The army leadership, as well as the entire Rwanda business community knows him as a very divisive and corrupt person, who has thrived through propagating lies about others. More than often, he has misled the people on sensitive issues that ended up backfiring and daunting the President’s image. An example is Rwanda’s past tainted with her neighbor Uganda. The fallout between Kagame and Museveni was largely because of Ndahiro’s misleading “intelligence” information to Kagame.

For fear of living in limbo amidst pressure from those who hate him, Ndahiro made an attempt to solicit Kagame’s favor and consent to allow him for a senior command’s military training in Fort Leavenworth, this was to prove to the president that he was willing to achieve some military skills from the academy. The President gave his consent, but as soon as his name was submitted to the US authorities, he was rejected on grounds that he’s a serious threat to the lives of many Rwandans living in the US. According to the US department of homeland security, Ndahiro, like other military killing squad remain a threat to Rwandan citizens living in the US and abroad.

Col Ndahiro’s image faded slowly by slowly however remember he was reluctant to join the army in the first place, in other words if he had not joined the army he would be still a practising Doctor the job of his dreams. With no blood in his hands, with no blame of trying to kill his former boss Kayumba Nyamwasa. He would have been honest to his wife and his ex-girlfriend as he would not have had no reason to lie. He would not have even been in a position to seek entrance in military academy to start with.

Edited by: Jennifer Fierberg