Yesterday as I sat on the sofa to read the transfer window of the British football league which is booming, my phone rang but the number was hidden, normally I never answer hidden numbers but this time answered because being a father you expect unknown calls from school or play grounds.
This call was not from my children but from Rwanda. The caller was male and had the countenance of that of a priest with a calm voice and he began reminiscing of our history together in the RDA and invited me to return home to Rwanda. These memories included when we engaged in escorting His Excellence the President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, we worked together with the president since I joined the RPA in early 90’s we had shared the little we had in those hard times, but ended up losing touch after the war as he was transferred to a different post within republican guard unit.
He urged me to totally denounce Rwanda National Congress (RNC) and forget about being a member of this organization; he reminded me how President Kagame was special and how he was elected by the people of Rwanda in landslide election. During the course of our conversation he became threatening and I became uncomfortable speaking with him further. He reminded me of the times that I left behind, which involved believing some one’s decision even their stupid judgments, mismanagement and poor planning. As I listened, I remembered my time as a body guard and driver to Paul Kagame, and every horror that I witnessed during my service.
Growing up in Uganda I had always wished to go back to Rwanda, My uncles were older than me and in the Ugandan forces as well as my elder brother. When we attacked Rwanda I had all the names of RPA commanders in my head from the late Afande Fred Rwigyema , Late Adam Waswa, Late Ndugute Kalisoliso and others.
I continued to think of what is going on today in Rwanda and reminisce about times gone by. He continued in his quest to convince me that I should denounce the RNC and have a better future in Rwanda, which obviously I could not accept. As a person who had lived alongside President Kagame for so long I still recall his character of abusing his commanding officers, his wife and anyone else around him. I responded to the caller by saying, “I was around him for so long and I find it easy to know where I belong Mr.,†and I hung up.
I witnessed Kagame making a full of himself so many times and so I cannot dare follow him again.
In 1994, I witnessed him slapping James Kabarebe for not answering the radio, when he called Nyinyi Wajinga as if it was his call sign, James’s call sign was 66 Golf but he was beaten because it was his responsibility to know that Wajinga means anyone with a radio.
In 1995, President Kagme started becoming anxious that afande Ndugute was planning to kill him, so we used to spend nights at his mother-in-law’s house and occasionally at his brother-in-law’s house until he dropped all his commanders and appointed new ones. This is the time I remembered how our army planted a landmine in front of Ndugute’s home in Kinihira, around 93-94 which he survived. This landmine went off but afande Ndugute was in a car and fortunately no one was injured. It was not a long time before afande Karangwa had just been killed by a landmine which was planted by our own soldiers. The young soldier, who I cannot I identify because of his security, asked Masumbuko if Karangwa was not going to use the route, Masumbuko told him to hurry and said that he knew what he was doing.
At some point in 1995, I was travelling in a Land Rover Jeep which belonged to the late Fred Rwigyema; this army Jeep was getting old even though it was not being used regularly so I asked Rogers Rutikanga who was responsible for President Kagame’s transport who actually ended up replacing at some point, if we could use that car instead of parking it forever. He said that he could not see the reason why we couldn’t use it; I wanted to drop off one of our causalities, Captain Leandre, who lost his sight during the war so he got into the car and we drove off. He is a very nice chap who can use his other senses to figure out what is around him. With his funny stories we started driving and talking about the world as well as life in general. As we were getting out of Camp Kigali we saw the convoy of President Kagame who was coming into Camp Kigali. He was viewing schools to see if his children would join the Camp Kigali Primary School which he did not like anyway.
He stopped and asked me if I knew who that car belonged to, I responded affirmatively and he slapped me in the face twice. He told three of his guards, Sentongo, Kizima, and Rwoganyanja to lay us down and continue beating us, Captain Leandre was left wondering why this was occurring. I and another guy named Bosco were beaten, he then asked me about that car and where it has been for all those years and I told him and then he looked at Bosco who was breathless and said that we should take him to the Hospital. I started asking myself why we were beaten but I could not get the answer until today.
In 1997 he was anxious again that there were plans to kill him, this time the alleged plan included several of the senior army officials, he later dropped several others but before dropping them we were ordered to spend the night in the middle of the road to Kinyinya for four days, we would leave at eight o’clock and come back home at six in the morning. This time he ordered the assassination of Major Birasa John who they accused of knowing of the plan to overthrowing the Government but never reported it to his superiors. He was assassinated by a section of nine soldiers sent by the now Colonel Silas Udahemuka who was a captain at the time, he is currently a member of the security detail of Kanombe airport.
The nine soldiers commanded by W011 Mugabo, who was later promoted to a full Lieutenant and is now a major, killed Major John Birasa alongside Captain Eddy Rwigyema who were traveling together with him in the same car. This is the same year when Presidednt Kagame ordered Rutatina to administer a poisonous injection to afande Ndugute which later killed him in South Africa. The post-mortem report indicated that he was in contact with a detected poisonous fluid in his lungs and was in the rest of his organs.
It’s evident that President Kagame’s killings are endless, as all Rwandans know, but let’s just focus on what might be the cause of these characters. Like many Rwandese refugees in foreign lands, he was in his early teens when he lost his father. It was at this time that he needed his father as a role model, he was a student at old Kampala school, his father lived in a settlement with his mother and sisters unfortunately his father became seriously ill so a Good Samaritan arranged his travel to Mulago hospital in Kampala.
It did not take long before President Kagame’s father passed away in the hospital but and received a visit from my uncle who was a lorry (truck) driver in Kawanda research, he went back to visit him and they told my uncle that Kagame’s father Rutagambwa had passed away, he sent a message to the settlement but after waiting for two days with no response he asked for the permission to bury him in a government land in Kawanda research which was a farm on Makarere University.
All my time while protecting Kagame I wished I had asked my uncle to show him where he had buried President Kagame’s father. According to the scientific research losing one of your parents between the ages of 11-15 years can be traumatic that it affects all your upbringing and the decisions you make in life. This has affected Kagame, he is so emotional and he does not trust anyone, his voice is so emotional and the body language does not match his affect.
When he is talking he assumes that everyone has to accept his words, and if not he presents aggression once he realizes that there is a sign of opposition. He cannot tolerate the media and sometimes he bangs on the table which is a sign of a personality disorder. I was able to see President Kagame shout at his mother and at some point his wife, she spent eight hours at a friend’s home when she was scared of him after having an argument. He kicked the window in when his son Brian locked himself in the room; this is the time when he attempted to beat his sister Marice for not being observant. Rwanda is ruled by a mad man.
He used to ask us to wake him up so he can watch boxing in 90’s, this was normally 2:00 o’clock in the morning because most of the time it was between Mike Tyson and whoever but when we were late by only 2 minutes he nearly killed us. He was very slender compared to now; I used to question myself why would this man enjoy boxing at that size? Look at his arms and his legs.
He later came up with a very good Idea of playing tennis which I thought that suited him and he actually became a better player. My time as his body guard is not regrettable though I told myself that I was working for Rwanda and that kept me going, but I still think that he has betrayed our nation by killing politicians, false imprisonment, killing our commanders after realizing that the war is ended, because he never commanded any war, we used to move to a safe place after clearance of the commanders I mentioned earlier especially Ndugute who was the operation commander. I will always stand on the truth and I am willing to explain my role in any position that I held during my time in Rwanda. That is enough for this week…. until next week.
Noble Marara