In 1997, Mr Charles Onyango-Obbo, then editor of The Monitor, secured an interview with Maj Gen Paul Kagame, then vice president and minister for defence of Rwanda.
Before he went for the interview, Onyango-Obbo asked me whether there were vernacular (local) policy issues he could put to the VP. ‘Ask him about the king,’ I said.
But Onyango-Obbo never wrote about Kagame’s position on the fate of Rwanda’s former king. Much later, I told Mr Kagame how I had asked Onyango-Obbo to ask about the fate of Umwami Kigeli V.
“Obbo asked me about the king and I answered him. He has not written about it though. May be he, like me, thinks this is not the time to promote a situation where a particular Rwandan enjoys privileges because of this or that historical situation”.
Mr Frank Habineza is my friend; we worked together at The Rwanda Herald where I was the PDG and editor-in-chief. Mr Habineza is now the president general of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda.
And by the way, other former Rwanda Herald staffers like Didas Gasana, Charles Kabonero and Richard Karugarama are now high fliers in European capitals.
Now, Habineza’s party recently demanded that government should allow and facilitate the return (from exile) of Rwanda’s former king Kigeli V Ndahindurwa. I support the idea.
For the record, King Kigeli V is Rwanda’s ‘only’ living former ‘head of state’. After him, Rwanda has had six presidents: Dominique Mbonyumutwa, Gregoire Kayibanda, Maj Gen Jovenal Habyarimana, Theodore Sindikubwabo, Pasteur Bizimungu and Maj Gen Kagame.
Kayibanda is said to have been starved to death by Habyarimana. And Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down. Sindikubwabo died in exile and is lying somewhere in an unmarked grave; and by the way, there is no known grave for Habyarimana.
Mbonyumutwa died in 1986 and was buried in Gitarama where his mausoleum (grave) was gazetted as one of the national monuments and antiquities of Rwanda. But in 2010, his mortal relics were exhumed and re-buried in a public cemetery (because government had changed the land-use for the plot on which Mobinyumutwa was buried).
And a friend told me that a court of law expunged from public record the Bizimungu presidency; so, it is illegal to call him as a former president.
In 2000, The Rwanda Herald reported that King Kigeli V had been sighted in Kinshasa. The paper sold off the stands but government officials threatened us and warned against publishing falsehoods. Days later, we were vindicated when President Kagame confirmed the veracity of the story. Kagame’s anger (and contempt) against the king was very conspicuous; this was after all the time the Congolese regime was very hostile to Rwanda and all Banyarwanda of any hue. King Kigeli V may have made poor judgments on the current leadership in Kigali. But I add my voice to that of Habineza’s party: Dear President Kagame, let Kigeli return; Rwandans can decide what to do with him later.
Of course Habineza doesn’t expect Kagame to allow the king’s return; he just wants to upset (or set up) Kagame.
Habineza is stubborn. Hear this: When Rwanda’s parliament initiated a constitutional amendment process that would allow president Kagame to run for another term of office, Habineza petitioned the Courts of Law challenging the process.
Matters went all the way to the Supreme Court where Habineza eventually lost. And what did our Habineza do? He petitioned president Kagame to stop the process; yet Kagame was the only beneficiary from the constitutional amendment process.
Writing a facebook post, I said: when I grow up, I would like to be like Frank Habineza. Mr Bisiika is the executive
editor of East Africa Flagpost.
Source:
http://mobile.monitor.co.ug/Dear-President-Paul-Kagame–let-King-Kigeli-V-return-home/-/691260/3230926/-/format/xhtml/-/1sonqh/-/index.html
