I recall many years ago when robbers in some of some East African cities had become so organized and dangerous that if something was stolen from you, it was more dangerous to pursue. People who are familiar with Kampala streets in the 1970s to 1980 would remember when Idd Amin decided that the solution to the rampant theft was to shoot, on the spot, anybody identified as a thief/robber, which led to loss of innocent lives in many cases. During the same period, those who used Nairobi’s River road would often have their property snatched and walked off as a safer alternative than do the chase. If you thought you were smart and shouted “thief “to open the chase game, the standby gang of thieves would shout “thief” louder than the you, yet directed at you. The thieves would mobilize a mass of angry but misdirected onlookers and these would batter you to death or put a tire around your neck and burn you to ashes. Often times, the Police pursuit whenever available, would also be misdirected by the same well coordinated gang of thieves who would thrive on, propagating more theft and more innocent deaths…terrible thing but true! And, not many people knew this till a horde of the innocent had perished. In the mean time, before this phenomenon was uncovered, the criminals had conveniently made good use of criminal psychology to confuse the public and the law. The recent wave of utterances from the so called Rwandan “prominent exiles” (but who in fact have criminal record) brings back this picture to my mind and has actually convinced me that criminal psychology is the same, all the time, no matter the perceived profile of the person who turns out to be the criminal in the end. I am particularly referring to the utterances by Theogene Rudasingwa, Karegeya, Kayumba and Gahima regarding the state of affairs in Rwanda and how the elections were rigged, how Rwanda’s development record is a result of lack of Political space and bad governance, how President Kagame is a myth but remains a strong influence on the ruling party and the government and so on and so forth. I also have in mind the fact that the four gentlemen served in top leadership of this very system they criticize until they dipped their hands in the public coffers and someone shouted “thief” and they run off to shout ”thief “louder than the victim, with the intention of accumulating support from the “trigger happy” foes of Rwanda. I am also very conscious as I write, that each of them is aware of the others’ criminal record and although this binds them together in criminal solidarity, they cannot escape from the fact that a role in convicting the others of their crime just before they themselves were caught up by the law they applied to others at later times. It is in this regard that I do urge you not to follow the shout of “criminal” from the criminals themselves, look for facts from the Police and verify the facts on record with your own research to confirm who the actual criminals are! Just make some little effort. Take for example, Rudasingwa, didn’t he swindle hundreds of thousands of pounds from State House in Kigali using his position as Director of Cabinet of the Rwandan presidency? Are you familiar with a company in Kenya known as SERVICE COPE? Ask them how Rudasingwa and a Mr. Mr.Kuldip ( a sales man of SERVICE COPE- who turned out to be con man) hurriedly created a fake company known as KENMATT, falsely obtaining a bond of good performance from a Bank known as Chatter House Bank (has since closed down for this and similar ventures). Ask how a tender that was destined for Service Cope was finally usurped by the improvised company of the two connivers - Rudasingwa Theogene and Conman Kuldip. The Two “gentlemen” shamelessly supplied to state house Kigali equipment from “Jua Kali” manufacturers of Kikomba in Nairobi instead of the professed quality equipment from Italy Does such a person have the moral ground to guide our judgment to what is a good or bad government? What Political space would Rudasingwa want for the Rwandans surely? a Political space for thieves and corrupt individuals to swindle and get away with it? God forbid! In the writing recently released by these criminals, they talk of an annexed list of exiles who run away from Rwanda’s “dictatorship”. If each name mentioned was to be appended a case file, each of these individuals has a case to answer. That is a fact! I would personally go into exile if my country had a group of untouchables who Kayumba, Karegeya, Gahima, and Rudasingwa thought they would be. Rwanda’s vision, today, is stronger than individuals whether they be our kin or Kith. We must match on. We have come from far, it has cost us heavily, we have our children and grand children to think about. We should not just forfeit our country to genocidal forces with whom the group is working and whose values they have openly shamelessly backed, we shouldn’t accept to be misdirected by a gang of thugs. Ends
