Letter from Rwanda
Murunganwa aka Himbara, please share your views with us on the recent High Command Council meeting. The meeting was chaired by the Commander in Chief, His Excellency President Paul Kagame. Media outlets here were strangely silent about the meeting. The Ministry of Defence usually issues press releases after such an important meeting but did not. The Office of the President only announced that the meeting took place on November 15, 2023. We are keen to hear from you on this matter.
General Paul Kagame’s meeting with the current and the discarded top security brass was nasty
The High Command Council meeting of November 15, 2023, was most appalling. But it was also predictable that a good deal of political blood would be spilled over in the meeting. The early signs that the meeting would be a complete mayhem included the invitees. As provided by the law, the Council is normally attended by the Minister of Defence and Chief of Defence Staff, all the way down to junior officers and lower-level commanders of RDF units. This time, Kagame dragged into the Council former military heavyweights he has long thrown into the dustbin.
The reason is simple. Kagame has dug himself into a deep hole. As a result, his delusions mislead him into believing that his current and the discarded kingpins are conspiring against him. His purpose at the meeting was, therefore to frighten the new and old military heavyweights into safeguarding his regime. Kagame was reading them the riot act – anyone who knows how to shoot a gun needs to start toeing the line or else.
Several factors have sharply increased his fears and anxieties lately. His old friends in and outside Africa have abandoned him, beginning with the US government. The Biden Administration has rebuked him for dispatching the 3rd Division of the Rwanda Defence Force entry into DRC to support M23. Subsequently, the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on Brigadier General Andrew Nyamvumba who headed the 3rd Division.
Meanwhile, bad governance, corruption and poverty have opened the floodgates for military coup d’état in Africa. No less than seven coup d’état have shaken the continent in the past three years. And since the beginning of 2022, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Sao Tome and Principe witnessed failed coup attempts. These are fearful times for dictators, especially Kagame who has terrorized the people of Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region.
Kagame turned the meeting into a war of one general against a roomful of generals, colonels, majors and captains
Kagame’s terror against his military heavyweights was caught on camera by a mere chance. Let the pictures of the battle between one general and a roomful of generals, colonels, majors and captains. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Here is Kagame’s defence minister Brigadier General Juvenal Marizamundalistening to Kagame’s terror speech during the November 15, 2023 High Command Council.
Here is Kagame’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Mubarakh Muganga.
Here is General Sam Kaka, former Chief of Staff.
Here is General Karake Karenzi, former chief of National Intelligence and Security Services.
Here is General Charles Muhire, former Air Force Chief of Staff (front) and General Emmanuel Ndahiro (back), former head of National Intelligence and Security Services.
Here is General Charles Kayonga, former Chief of Defence Staff (front) and General Jack Nziza (back), Inspector-General of the Rwanda Defence Force.
Here is General Patrick Nyamvumba, the former Chief of Defence Staff of the Rwanda Defence Force and the Minister of Internal Security, the only old heavyweight that Kagame has not yet dumped.
Here are other attendees of the High Command Council of November 15, 2023.
A meeting filled with terrified generals, colonels, majors and captains tells Rwanda’s tragic story
If men and women who know how to shoot guns are this terrified of Kagame, imagine what the rest of the Rwandan population feels. Pure terror. And it is not about to end. Kagame is preparing to compete against Kagame for the fourth term after three decades at the helm.
According to the 2022 Population and Housing Census, Rwandans aged 29 years and younger number over 7.4 million out of 13.2 million Rwandan population. Put in another way, over 50% of Rwandans were born during Kagame’s 1994/2023 reign. His constitution allows him to cling to power until 2034, complete with a senate seat and immunity from prosecution for any crimes he committed. But then again, as the saying goes, “Only a fool would make predictions – especially about the future.” Stay tuned.
