Augustin Nyabutsitsi, a man that taught President Paul Kagame in primary school, has died. According to a reliable source, the 79-year-old died early in the morning on Tuesday, November 8 at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali where he had been rushed after experiencing some illness. Until his death, he was living in Kinyinya, a Kigali suburb, in a house bought for him by President Kagame. Nyabutsitsi taught Kagame in primary six and seven between 1967 and 1968 at Rwengoro Primary School located in a refugee camp in Uganda where both were refugees. In an interview with The New Times in 2017, Nyabutsitsi described a young Kagame as an intelligent and curious child. “Kagame was like other children, but he was exceptionally intelligent. His favourite subjects were mathematics and English. He was also very curious, and I remember he would not stop asking questions until he felt satisfied,” he said. In 2016, he met with President Kagame, after many years of wishing to link up, from both sides. It is understood that while attending a particular meeting, Kagame asked those in attendance if by chance anyone knew where his former primary teacher Nyabutsitsi lived. From that time, the President tasked Prof. Manasseh Nshuti (current Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of the East African Community) to locate him. The former student and teacher finally met on January 25, 2016. “When we met, I didn’t ask for anything from him, but I was surprised that he knew almost everything about me. He told me he had heard I was renting after which he tasked Prof. Nshuti to get me a decent house. This is what you see today; it’s feedback from him. I never dreamed of owning a house like this, and take this opportunity to thank him sincerely,” he told The New Times in a 2017 interview. By press time, Nyabutsitsi’s family was working on his burial arrangements. .
