Must Rwanda's opponents be pursued even in death?
Columnists
Thursday, 09 January 2014 21:25
Written by MOSES KHISA
2 Comments

"Why would two heads of state fear a dead body," one of the most
ardent readers of The Observer, Samuel, asked me in an email,
referring to the apparent refusal by the Ugandan government to okay
the burial of Colonel Patrick Karegeya at his home in Mbarara.
Karegeya was found dead on New Year's day in an upscale hotel in
Johannesburg, South Africa. Although the South African police
preliminarily concluded he was murdered, we yet don't know fully how
he died and who/what killed him.
Karegeya was officially Rwandan but actually also Ugandan. He headed
Rwanda's external intelligence services from 1994 to 2004 having left
Uganda in 1990 along with other members of Uganda's National
Resistance Army (NRA), the then national army, including President
Paul Kagame.
Kagame, then a major in NRA, abandoned his military course at the US's
Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, to command
the new rebel Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) following the death of Maj
Gen Fred Rwigema within days of launching the war.
The RPA was comprised mostly of Rwandan refugees resident in Uganda.
But I gather, from credible sources, that Patrick Karegeya was not a
refugee. He was a bonafide Ugandan national, born in Uganda to Ugandan
parents but of Rwandan descent.
When Karegeya's father died in 2004, he was buried at his home in
Mbarara, and when his octogenarian mother dies, she too will most
likely be buried next to her husband's grave.
So, he may have left Uganda, joined the RPA and served in the Rwandan
government (many other Ugandans did, including Major Okwir Rwaboni,
young brother to late Brig Noble Mayombo), but Patrick Karegeya was,
for all intents and purposes, a Ugandan.
Why then would his burial in Uganda be open to debate, let alone
barred? True, Karegeya was no ordinary Ugandan. But even then, must
the pathologies of our politics completely override our humanity?
Ordinarily, no Ugandan seeks permission from government to bury a
loved one. People do it all the time, unfettered. It's their
inalienable right. But aware her son was no ordinary folk, Karegeya's
mother, 86, publicly sought government permission. She didn't stop at
the public plea. The Observer reported on Wednesday that she met the
ultimate decision-maker in Uganda – the president – who ostensibly
listened to her but remained non-committal. He had to first consult
the Rwandan government!
Over the past weekend, the Ugandan government flip-flopped
effortlessly. First, we heard that government hadn't received a formal
request. Then foreign affairs junior minister, Henry Okello-Oryem,
told the Daily Monitor newspaper his government had no objection to
Karegeya's burial but that it wouldn't be involved in the burial
arrangements. Fair enough.
However, in characteristic style, of uncoordinated communication, the
foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Fred Opolot, issued a terse statement
decreeing that Karegeya should be buried in his country of residence
or citizenship, South Africa or Rwanda, and not Uganda. Strange!
It seems that in our politics, an enemy remains one even in death. No
burying the proverbial hatchet at the burial. Rwanda's Foreign Affairs
minister, Ms Louise Mushikiwabo, reportedly averred that because
Karegeya was a "self-declared" enemy of Rwanda, he deserved "no pity!"
Quite ironic considering that Rwanda is widely hailed, and deservedly
so, for its post-genocide national reconciliation and consensus
politics. Yet, perhaps unknown to Ms Mushikiwabo; even at the
battlefront, magnanimity is not uncommon. Ugandan journalist Andrew
Mwenda recently told me he was exasperated by the loose utterances of
individuals who fell-out with Kagame.
"Can't they disagree with Kagame on principle?" Mwenda wondered. The
counterpart question now is: must opponents be pursued even in death?
Lest we forget, the venerated Nelson Mandela is hardly a month old in
his grave on the same land where Karegeya is to be buried.
At his funeral, US President Barack Obama's speech included a line
that trended on social media: "There are too many leaders who claim
solidarity with Madiba's struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate
dissent from their own people."
Obstructing Karegeya's burial, not in Rwanda but in Uganda, smacks of
intolerance. Within hours of his tragic death, the exile-based
opposition Rwanda National Congress pointedly, but rather prematurely,
accused the Rwandan government of political assassination.
The latter vehemently denies any hand, insisting the former spy chief
posed no serious threat. It's indeed difficult to imagine a dissident
colonel, exiled thousands of kilometres further afield, remotely
constituting a threat, not with Rwanda's acclaimed strong intelligence
and military apparatus. Until proven impeccably, the Rwandan
government reserves its right to innocence.
Deaths like Karegeya's remind us that state power is a dangerously
double-edged sword. During my recent trip to Rwanda, I heard that at
the peak of his powers, Karegeya wielded enormous power and influence.
And at the nadir of frosty Rwanda-Uganda relations in early 2000s, he
and fellow dissident, Lieutenant General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa
(then heading the Rwandan army), were key players in planning and
prosecuting war against Uganda in eastern Congo.
In 2010, Kayumba survived death by a whisker. His colleague was not as
lucky. In both cases, they accuse their erstwhile comrade in arms,
President Kagame. People holding state power need some soul-searching.
moses.khisa@gmail.com
The author is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Northwestern
University, Evanston/Chicago-USA.
Comments
#1 Muzukulu 2014-01-10 01:25
This Article was nice until you mentioned Mwenda. As a journalist with
brains or knowledge of this chap Mwenda in the last decade were you
surprised that he wasnt happy with utterances against Kagame?
You wattered down the whole article. Kagame and other fake liberators
are incapable of contrition. killing is one thing, punishing the dead
is added glory as the Foreign affairs lady applauded the death.
Those are the kind of people Mwenda defends for a fee. For future
reference stand on ur own journalism you dont need Mwenda you are
better than him just not as well known.
#2 maiti 2014-01-10 11:34
The man is Rwandese and I am glad Uganda stood its ground. He killed
innocent Ugandans and had left Uganda to go and serve his country, so
would we want him back even in death.
Kudos to Uganda on this one.
http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29530&catid=93
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