Response to allegations by four renegades

Recently, four Rwandan renegades, Kayumba Nyamwasa, Patrick Karegyeya, Gerald Gahima and Theogene Rudasingwa were in the media. As usual, they were attempting to tarnish the image of the Government of Rwanda and its leadership. In their joint work, misleadingly entitled “Rwanda Briefing”, the four renegades personalize issues and fail to hide their true character and personalities. Brigadier General Richard Rutatina and Lieutenant Colonel Jill Rutaremara respond to the misguided “Rwanda Briefing” report in a three-part series. Part 1: OVERVIEWThe turn coats, who are now proselytes of genocide ideology, portray Rwanda as a failing state in a serious crisis and pose as the spokespersons for the Hutu. Typical of their character, they labour hard to appeal to ethnic sentiments with the hope of dividing Rwandans as they work hard to discredit the Government among the members of international community. They distort issues and fail to back their statements with facts. They present cheap and absurd arguments and examples to justify their preconceived biases. In their fantasies and dilly dallying, they present themselves as the panacea to the problems in Rwanda without offering a concrete alternative programme to that of the government of Rwanda. The document of the four renegades is misleading, particularly to those who do not know Rwanda. It is full of falsehoods, unnecessary repetitions, inconsistencies and outright contradictions and it would normally attract no response. However, in the interest of conveying the truth to the national and international public, a response is worthwhile. ABOUT THE RENEGADESBefore delving into the substance of the document, it is fitting to examine first the authors themselves, their objectives and their methodology. On the cover of the document are names of its four authors. Kayumba Nyamwasa appears as a full general when in fact the last rank he held was Lieutenant General. For suspicious reasons, he deliberately omits to include his other appointments, including Deputy Chief of Staff, National Gendarmerie and Secretary General, National Security Service. Patrick Karegyeya is indicated as Colonel when in fact he was stripped of his rank by a competent military court after being found guilty of insubordination. Theogene Rudasingwa describes his last appointment as Chief of Staff to the President when his real designation was Director of Cabinet, Office of the President. Interestingly, while Kayumba inflates his rank and Karegyeya is an impostor (because he was stripped of all ranks), Theogene Rudasingwa conveniently never mentions his last military rank of Major. These deliberate additions and omissions may seem minor facts of detail, but they do matter greatly especially when they appear in print on a document attacking a sovereign state. If the four authors find it easy to lie about their true identities, how can they be trusted to comment fairly on a government they betrayed? The personal record of the four authors of the document also raises questions about their integrity. Kayumba Nyamwasa once served as Army Chief Of Staff, during which time he attempted to build cliques within the army leadership. His leadership, both in the Army and National Security Service, was characterized by favoritism, irresponsibility and lack of accountability. These serious failures of leadership led to his removal from the responsibilities. It has since been discovered that he worked for foreign agencies while occupying these positions. Whilst serving as an Ambassador to India, Kayumba started organizing terrorist networks with the aim of destabilizing Rwanda. Patrick Karegyeya, while serving as Director General of External Security, ran the directorate as a personal estate. He was also found to be grossly irresponsible and lacking in accountability, both for his actions and the resources under his control. It has since been discovered that Patrick Karegyeya sabotaged government and international efforts to locate and arrest the most wanted genocide fugitive, Felicien Kabuga. At one time when the security agencies were closing in on Kabuga in Kenya, it was Karegyeya who tipped him off to escape in return for large sums of money. It is strongly believed that the connection with Kabuga was through his daughter, a girlfriend to Karegyeya. These factors led to his being sacked from the duties and posted to mainstream military service, a transfer that he took grudgingly. This attitude led to insubordination, for which he was charged, tried, found guilty, got stripped of his military rank and dismissed with disgrace from military service. Theogene Rudasingwa is a renowned conman whose exploits in the 1980s are well known by his peers. To this day, those who lived and studied with him still call him by the nickname “REDCOM”, a name he acquired after an abortive extortion operation he personally conceived and executed. While at Makerere University, Kampala-Uganda, Theogene Rudasingwa lived an extravagant and flamboyant lifestyle that was beyond his means and this led to high indebtedness. He then hatched a criminal extortion operation in which his victims were blackmailed and instructed to deposit money with a fictitious Mr “REDCOM CX-1200”. Fortunately or unfortunately, Rudasingwa’s criminal scheme was discovered after he had received some amount of cash from a few gullible victims. He later deserted medical school and fled to Kenya under the guise of being hunted by security operatives. After the National Resistance Army (NRA) liberation war in Uganda, 1986, he went back to Makerere University and claimed he had joined NRA and was an army officer. This was a lie because he had never joined the army. He was only to join RPA later in 1990. Old habits, as they say, die hard. Even when he rose to the prestigious office of Director of Cabinet, Office of the President, Theogene Rudasingwa entered into shoddy contracts to earn himself kick-backs. In one instance, he contracted a briefcase company purportedly based in Nairobi to supply some equipment to the President’s Office. As would be expected, the contract went bad and the Government lost lots of money in the process. For this corrupt deal, Major Rudasingwa was charged, tried but acquitted for lack of conclusive evidence which he had been smart enough to hide. Gerald Gahima, like his half brother Theogene Rudasingwa, has excessive love for money and is known to do whatever it takes to amass wealth. While serving as the Prosecutor General, he used undue influence to secure a fat loan of seventy two million francs from BACAR, a commercial bank in Kigali that his office was investigating for fraud. Gahima’s immoral character and unethical conduct came to light when it was discovered that he actually took the loan, not in his names, but in the names of his over sixty-year old peasant mother. To make matters worse, Gahima refused to pay back the loan. On account of this and other cases of abuse of office, Gahima was forced to resign from the Vice-Presidency of the Supreme Court. It is not surprising that Gahima is currently wanted by the Australian government to answer fraud charges relating to briefcase consultancy. In short, none of the four authors of ‘Rwanda Briefing’ have the minimum integrity or moral authority required to criticize the existing government of Rwanda. The writing of ‘Rwanda Briefing’ is therefore an exercise in futility and should be treated with the contempt it deserves. THEIR OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY The document published by the four fugitives has three major objectives. Firstly, the authors hope to redeem their tainted reputations by tarnishing the government whose moral standards they failed to live up to. Secondly, they hope that by making noise they may blackmail the government of Rwanda to offer them new government jobs to buy their silence. Thirdly, the fugitives hope to sow discord between Hutu and Tutsi in order to make the country ungovernable. It’s a case of “Tura tugabane niwanga tujajure”, loosely translated as “we either share or destroy it” - a negative objective indeed. This negative philosophy is commonly championed by opportunistic characteristic of these renegades. The four fugitives target their writing mainly at the powerful countries in the hope of persuading them to discontinue their cooperation with Rwanda. They also target the population of Rwanda in order to revert to the pre-1994 ethnic animosity in the vain hope of making the country ungovernable. This clearly shows that these renegades are completely out of touch with the realities on the ground in Rwanda. The methodology adopted by the fugitives to write “Rwanda Briefing” is a confused amalgam of academic pretentions and sensational hogwash. The document has a surprisingly lengthy bibliography such as one would find in an academic research paper. One would have expected the authors to comment authoritatively on Rwanda instead of relying on sources the majority of whom are renowned anti-Rwanda elements. The sensationalist aspect of the authors’ methodology actually dominates the document. Rwanda Briefing is replete with wild speculations and prophecies of doom like coups d’états, a second genocide - hardly the kind of stuff one would expect to find in a purportedly credible document. Because the authors employ a flawed methodology, their findings are incorrect and their conclusions untenable. Consider, for example, the fact that throughout the document the authors start every section by admitting the noble goals of the RPF-led government and the enormous progress that has been achieved in almost all areas of national life under President Kagame’s leadership. They do this because the achievements speak for themselves and cannot be wished away. Then, all of a sudden, by some kind of sleight of hand, the authors turn around and start attacking the party and the President who made all the achievements happen. What a contradiction! All in all, the confused and dishonest methodology adopted by the four authors of Rwanda Briefing discredits the entire document. To be continued Brigadier General Richard Rutatina is the Defence and Security Advisor to H.E The President and Lieutenant Colonel Jill Rutaremara is the Defence and Military Spokesman.