By Seruga Titus
There are whispers of an on going deadly stand off between President Paul Kagame and his Generals. These whispers have persisted from before Gen. Nyamvumba was sacked as Security Minister. Paul Kagame is a man who is well known for solving all dissent or opposition with assassinations. This is so especially with his military.
It seems the current crop of Generals, both retired and active have staged a resistance where it’s not possible for Paul Kagame to execute an arrest of any of the senior officers. They all know that who ever is picked from amongst them and locked up, will die which also means a loss of an ally for those fighting for their lives. It also means that Paul Kagame would then gain ground to use terror tactics and scatter those left behind.
Information coming in from some sources close to RDF are that, the real reason was an ongoing planning by top RDF Generals to conduct a coup d’état against Paul Kagame’s government.
It’s not clear which Generals are involved, however, Patrick Nyamvumba, a 4 star General is being accused together with other officers we shall not name for now, for plotting to execute a coup d’état against Paul Kagame’s government. Although information is not easy coming, this is what we can report:
1. General Patrick Nyamvumba was unceremoniously removed from office as Security Minister. The sacking document signed by the Prime Minister Dr. Ngirente on behalf of President Paul Kagame also mentioned that the good 4 star General was being investigated on issues related to accountability. In Paul Kagame’s world, when accountability is the issue on a soldier, it’s a coded death sentence. Had Nyamvumba been a Hutu, he would be under investigation for committing, denying or ideology of genocide or both. General Nyamvumba’s sacking was therefore not a usual one.
2. Following the sacking of Gen. Nyamvumba, Paul Kagame passed a decree that prevented all RDF officers above the level of Colonel from talking to each other. Most of them are not allowed to leave their homes.
3. President Kagame himself has found Rwanda too small for him to hide. While no one knows where he was hiding when he was completely out of sight for sometime amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, he now spends a single night in three places:
a) He spends afternoons and evenings at his office in Village Urugwiro in Kacyiru,
b) He then drives to State House, his official residence in Kiyovu for a while,
c) He then heads to Rwamagana, East of Kigali where he spends late hours of the night at his Muhazi residence. His security is deployed along these routes, including in trees, where people have seen them in Ndera Kabuga, Muyumbu, Nyagasambu area. One observer mentioned that one of these days a soldier is going to get asleep and fall from the tree and injure himself because they have to wait for him to use the route and one never knows when he might pass. Before he sets off to his Muhazi country residence, a 30km road stretch is cut off and made unusable until he clears the road.
3. Around the time Rwanda put in a place a lockdown, Paul Kagame reduced public appearances to a minimum few and completely disappeared after he was seen demonstrating hand washing to Rwandans in English. Paul Kagame had began a hand washing challenge on Twitter which flopped, where he tagged a number of African leaders but left out President Museveni. Soon a rumour began circulating around that Paul Kagame had been flown to UK severely ill where he died. From within RDF, it was immediately understood that this deceptive information had been planted by Paul Kagame in Europe, specifically in UK, as a trap for any who would make a reckless move. When the trap didn’t work, Paul Kagame dismissed Gen. Nyamvumba through a third party, again to attempt to get him to say something that would be used against him which he never did.
4. During the the COVID19 lockdown, President Kagame made many reshuffles within the military but the most important was the recalling of the trusted Maj. Gen Innocent Kabandana who was the Chief of Staff of Paul Kagame’s 2nd Army also known as “INKERAGUTABARA” commanded by a 4 star Gen Fred Ibingira. This army maintained the old RPA bush war formation and doctrine, which is based on Brigade sized battalion formations where emphasis is put on mobility through long matches, surprise take overs of vital and strategic positions with light weapons as re-enforcements come in when the enemy’s plans have already been disrupted and offensive options reduced to near zero.
A big sacrifice was therefore made to pull an officer of such calibre from a war that Paul Kagame is fighting against many groups based in Eastern DRC but mainly against Burundi, where his objective is to disrupt the upcoming elections in Burundi. Paul Kagame is aware that a successful transfer of power in Burundi will put that country in a very strong position at home and internationally, yet the hostility between the two states has never been worse.
Major General Innocent Kabandana is an officer with both a 1994 criminal record but also an officer who is both royal to Paul Kagame and very efficient at executing special operations. While he was made the head of a military academy, It’s only a cover for him to come up with a plan to neutralize, General who are supposedly planning to oust President Kagame.
