Kagame Seized Ayabatwa’s Businesses And Says Uganda Must Do Same

By David Himbara

Here comes the mother of surprises. According to the Observer newspaper, Kagame is demanding that Uganda closes Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa’s companies and kicks him out. Kagame apparently believes that Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and Ayabatwa are co-sponsors of Rwandan rebels seeking to remove him from power.

Somebody should inform Kagame of Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity. Einstein defined insanity as ”doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Or, the English idiom ”The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” which describes someone unable to stop giving false alarm. Kagame’s irrational and chronic hatred has driven him to decimate Rwanda’s business people using all manner of manipulative schemes. Case in point is Assinapol Rwigara.

After his mysterious death, destruction of his hotel, and the auctioning of his factory in 2018, few genuine entrepreneurs remain in Kagame’s Rwanda. Now we see a new phenomenon — Kagame is peeping outside Rwandan borders to finish the last business leader still standing. Uganda and other countries that host Ayabatwa’s businesses will not fall for the Boy Wolf noise. Ayabatwa has been doing business since 1970s when Kagame who struggling in secondary school. Ayabatwa built successful businesses in the East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (SADC), The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and the United Arab Emirates.

This is a track record that any national leader would be proud of. But not General Kagame. In fact, the only country in which Ayabatwa does not manufacture or trade his products is his homeland, the Republic of Rwanda. That is because Kagame grabbed Ayabatwa’s businesses and residences, including the flagship, the US$20 million Union Trade Center (UTC) shopping mall.

Not only that — Kagame then revoked Ayabatwa’s citizenship, despite Article 25 of the Rwandan Constitution which reads in part: ”No one can be deprived of Rwandan nationality of origin.” When Kagame was conducting this witch hunt, he claimed that Ayabatwa’s businesses were ”abandoned.” And now, Kagame is demanding that Uganda kicks Ayabatwa out, too, for a different reason — co-sponsorship of rebels with President Museveni. This is the worst case of insanity.