Dr. Fabien Twagiramungu, PhD in environmental chemistry, former lecturer at university of Rwanda, Deputy Chairman of the BoD of REMA and co-owner of a bar called 2 SHOTS CLUB located at Remera opposite BK Arena was victim of a road accident from a car conducted by Yves Kamuronsi, his neighbor who works at AEGIS an organization partnering with IBUKA and genocide memorials. Given the circumstances in which occurred the accident, several analysts consider facts as a conspired murder where masterminds, executioners and the mobiles are singled out. So it is said that evidence was destroyed by Yves Kamuronsi, what evidence was he concealing, if not that establishing his role in the murder of Dr Fabien Twagiramungu? What is the mobile underpinning the death of Dr. Fabien Twagiramungu? Â
Facts
It all started when one of them saw the death of Dr. Fabien Twagiramungu, says that in the early morning, the killer Yves Kamuronsi came to park a car with plate RAE 654 K at Ndengeye Station, where Dr. Twagiramungu liked to be in the morning sports, as he used to start it every five (5:00 AM). This Ndengeye is the father-in-law of Ange Kagame, daughter of President Kagame. The security guard at the station in Ndengeye continues to say that about 30 minutes later, Yves Kamuronsi parked the car, after he answered his mobile phone, he immediately started the car, at a high speed, and hit Dr. Twagiramungu who was agonizing, stopped for a while, verified whether he had killed him and hit him again. Those who were nearby immediately came to the rescue and immediately realized that the victim was Dr. Twagiramungu, because he was well known in the area near where Assinapol Rwigara was hit. This Dr. Twagiramungu was known because he had established a bar called “2 Shots Club”, located in Remera near the BK Arena in front of the heroes’ cemetery, some believe that the person who killed him was motivated by jealousy and wanted to take over this bar. The witnesses immediately called the Traffic Police, the road department, and others followed Yves Kamuronsi’s car, they found out the car he was in, then showed it to the police and found that the car was also occupied by Kamuronsi’s employee, Nyabyenda William, who was washing it to remove the blood to hide the incident.
Analysis
Allegedly, in the name of Rwandan people, courts are delivering rulings that deceive the public which was expecting justice from them to the extent that the latter risk to distrust them and worse resort to retaliations.
A case still pending before courts
The case of Yves Kamuronsi was tried by the Primary Court of Gasabo, the Intermediate Court of Gasabo and the lawyer of civil action envisaged to appeal before the High Court.
The Primary Court of Gasabo
After finding out all the truth told by the people who refused to reveal their identities for their security, the police arrested Yves Kamuronsi and detained him, and he was presented to the Kacyiru Primary Court in Kibagabaga,the public prosecution represented by Ntezumwami Shakondo Augustin while the court panel was collegial constituted by Sindayigaya Tatien,Rwamakuba Jean de Dieu and Hategekimana Zozime. Unexpectedly, people were shocked by the qualification of facts prosecuted. The judges of this Court ignored all the truths given by the witnesses, and changed the crime of voluntary murder committed by Yves Kamuronsi into two crimes, which are concealing evidence and non-assistance of someone in danger. They sentenced him to 5 years of imprisonment and fined him to 1.500.000 Rwandan francs, but Yves Kamuronsi’s lawyers as well as the victim’s family represented by Me BUHURU Pierre Celestin immediately appealed to the Gasabo Intermediate Court in Rusororo.
Position of the accused Kamuronsi Yves: right to lies?
Different people, motorists and security agents from different places in Gacuriro, where Dr. When Twagiramungu was hit, they followed the car with the license plate RAE 654 K. As soon as it made its way, they saw the man who had entered it. They called the police department of the road to Yves Kamuronsi and woke him up in his pajamas. When asked, the owner of the stolen car said that he was being picked up by the driver and that he was going to work on his motorcycle. However, this driver was never identified. In addition, the security agent who followed Yves Kamuronsi to his house confirmed to the Traffic Police that this Kamuronsi was the one who was driving this car, but the Court denied it. The clerk says that as soon as he saw the car hit someone, he immediately took the motorcycle and followed it to find out where it was going. So this was proof that Yves Kamuronsi killed Dr. We were sorry, but it was ignored.
Position of defence lawyers
Kamuronsi Yves was assisted by four advocates namely Me Gashagaza Philbert, Me Nyangezi Bonane, Me Yves Sangano and Me Kaboyi Benoit. Kamuronsi’s lawyers continue to insist that he is a good person except for his drunkenness, but the plaintiffs have criticized him by showing all the evidence that when he hit Dr. Twagiramungu was not drunk and himself denied such alibi but instead he was performing his job of hitman, especially since curfew due to covid-19 had not yet allowed people to stay in bars until that time and witnesses confirmed that they saw him parking his car for a long time at the Ndengeye station, waiting to be called to carry out the dirty job he was sent to carry out. This evidence was ignored by the Court and in the reading of the judgment that took place on 25/11/2022, it found him guilty of just concealing evidence, sentenced him to two-years suspended, and he was immediately released and went back home.
Me BUHURU Pierre Celestin, advocate of civil claimants
Me Buhuru Pierre Célestin, who advocated for the compensation, went so far as to criticize the Prosecution because he saw it as disorganized, doing the wrong job. Speaking to the media, Me Buhuru said that he was surprised by the behavior of the Prosecution because it was the first time he had experienced it in his 22 years in this profession. He went on to say that everything was messed by the Police because they did not give seriousness to the death of Dr. Twagiramungu and it seemed as a shameful resolution when they released Yves Kamuronsi on the first day to join his home while yet the person he hit, all the evidence being available, was agonizing in Hospital King Fayçal.
Another thing that seemed unusual for Me Buhuru is where the Prosecution forced Yves Kamuronsi to pay a fine without trial instead of imprisonment while the crime he was being prosecuted for was a felony. Here he points out that Article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that, if the prosecutor finds that the accused can be fined, there is no trial. Me Buhuru underlined that the investigation was not done properly given that Yves Kamuronsi was fined and went back home as if he committed a simple petty offence and did not go to court. Killing Dr. Twagiramungu Fabien was considered as a simple tort or wrongdoing rather than a felony of cruelty. Meanwhile, due to the pressure of social media, Yves Kamuronsi was again arrested and jailed, but his lawyers came up with another lie that he was drunk, while his house boy and even himself denied that, and when the policemen arrived at his home as soon as he committed the crime, they found that he was not drunk, but was lying down after having ordered his house boy to wash the car to remove trains of the blood. Investigators believe that if he was intoxicated he would not have noticed those blood trains on the car.
Intermediate Court of Gasabo
However, all this Me Buhuru said was not respected by the High Court of Gasabo, but it found Yves Kamuronsi guilty of concealing the evidence of a crime which he denies that it happened, and he immediately went home as promised by Egide Nkuranga and Mr. Raphaël Ngarambe, who were paradoxically friends of Dr. Twagiramungu as they co-owned the 2 Shots Club bar, and they were already very friendly, to the point of having children at baptisms. So these two apparently are the ones who hired Yves Kamuronsi to kill Dr. Twagiramungu and had assured him an immediate release because they do exercise influence in all the echelons of the judiciary.
Openable double appeal?
The judiciary of Rwanda continues to damage its image by unfair judgments, showing how it works, especially with the way it behaved in the death of Dr. Fabien Twagiramungu. The fact that all the evidence given by those who stood by his death was ignored shows that there is no truth in this judgment, and if there is no truth, it is difficult to give fair justice. We apologize to the family of Dr. Twagiramungu continues to lack justice because of the RPF gangs. We will continue to pursue their appeal in the High Court as Me Buhuru who is defending the plaintiffs has already appealed. The appeal was declared not admissible by the High Court. According to article 40 the Rwandan n°30/2018 of 02/06/2018 determining the jurisdiction of courts, the High Court has jurisdiction to hear at the first level of appeal criminal cases tried at first instance by Intermediate Courts while Article 41 of the same law provides that the High Court hears at the second level of appeal criminal cases heard at the first level of appeal by Intermediate Courts if such cases: are determined based on a non-existing law or rendered by an incompetent court; involve a penalty which is not provided by law; are decided based on evidence, document or submissions presented after the trial without any reopening of proceedings; are rendered by a bench with no required minimum number of judges; are pronounced by a judge other than the one having heard them; are not tried in public while no in-camera hearing is ordered.
Considering the provisions above, a double appeal is not possible from the prosecution which by the way turned out partial so that it does agree with the rendered verdict; the civil claimants may just appeal for damages but the concern they had was the due punishment of the killer of the late Dr. Fabien Twagiramungu.
The roles played by Sakindi Eugene, Egide Nkuranga and Ngarambe Raphael
The triumvirate of the three allegedly friends of the late Dr Fabian Twagiramungu plotted his disappearance and backed the murderer before courts.
Sakindi Eugene
SAKINDI is a former soldier in the RDF and later became a prosecutor at the local level. He is the brother-in-law of Dr KANIMBA and he was in the battalion led by General IBINGIRA who granted him public markets when he was still commander of reserve forces after he retired from the public prosecution and now he is a billionaire. He is two brother of general willy who heads the republican guards; He is said to be a violent extremist Tutsi because when he arrived in Rwanda after the victory of the RPF, he engaged in on revenge operations and then killed his neighbors in the former Nyaruhengeri commune. In this case, he was the one who called Dr Twagiramungu to find out that he had started the morning sport on the road, then he immediately ordered Kamuronsi who reside nearby to speed up the car to catch him still running and hit him.
Ngarambe Raphael
He is a former soldier in the RDF and later became a national prosecutor, he is now an advocate and was co-owner of the bar 2 SHOTS CLUB. He did not attend to his friend’s mourning; he stated that he was killed by the RPF system, but he has no evidence but when Kamuronsi Yves was arrested by the RIB for the crime committed, he was part of the group of Sakindi Eugene and Egide Nkuranga who declared that the accused will be quickly freed because the judiciary is on their side.
Egide Nkuranga
He has been president of IBUKA and Chairman of the Rwandan Association of professional environmental practitioners(RAPEP); he is the husband of the Chief Prosecutor at the Intermediate Level of Gasabo, Mrs. Mushimiyimana Françoise and probably must have influenced her to contradicting the indictment in favor of the defendant as he and his friends Sakindi Eugen and Ngarambe Raphael that the judiciary is on their side.
Judicial irregularities in the adjudication of the case
Both the public prosecution at the intermediate level and the intermediate court mismanaged the case of the case of Kamuronsi Yves whereby the partiality was undoubtedly manifest given that on one side, the chief prosecutor Mrs.Mushimiyimana Francoise who was representing the public prosecution decided to put aside all the charging proofs and contradicted her indictment taking the position of the defence lawyers. On the other side, heartlessly, the intermediary court decided two years of imprisonment with suspension of the penalty to deduct that the two magistrates were already either bribed or under instructions from the masterminds of the crime. It should be noted that the judgment of the Intermediate Court of Gasabo deliberately ignored the fact that Mr. Buhuru Pierre Célestin and Mr. Nkuba Milton, who are defending the plaintiffs in the case, had asked the police to provide the video footage of the murder of Dr. Fabien and the phone numbers of all Yves Kamuronsi he called before killing Dr Fabien Twagiramungu. We should add that they had also asked the court to come to the scene of the so-called accident, and it is within its jurisdiction to request a thorough investigation.
The mobile
The group of Ngarambe Raphael, Nkuranga Egide and Sakindi Eugene organized the murder of the late Dr Twagiramungu Fabien by following up all the moves of the latter and sent Kamuronsi Yves to kill him and this is evidenced by communications they exchanged with the victim and the killer which were not considered by the investigators, the prosecution and even the court. The group intended to exclude Dr Fabien Twagiramungu from the co-ownership of the 2 SHOTS CLUB but this hypothesis is questionable because legally speaking the death of a person does not void his property rights which are inherited by his heirs.The mobile that should be tangibly the underpinning of the crime is the political assassination plotted by the regime and executed by his close friends, the reason why courts after having ignored all charging proofs released the accused revolting the public in general and his family in particular.
Conclusion
Dr Twagiramungu Fabien was killed thanks to that modus operandi of hiding behind the road traffic accidents; an innovation that the killing machine of Kigali regime is adopting given that flagrant crimes like the kidnapping of Paul Rusesabagina, the shooting of general Kayumba and Bamporiki in South African and Revocat in Mozambique as well as the scandal of Pegasus were automatically imputed to the regime spoiled its image in the diplomacy. The reason why, under political pressure of the hierarchy, all proofs charging the murderer were neglected by all the judicial institutions. The Trio of Sakindi Eugen, Ngarambe Raphael and Nkuranga Egide are executioners while Yves Kamuronsi remains a hitman as well as other authors of planned criminal road accidents where targeted individuals lost their lives to muzzle them and thus progressively reduce the number of political opponents.
