The recent shooting of the dissident general Kayumba Nyamwasa made the global media headlines in a city with thousands of murders a year. Mr. Kayumba is expected to make a full recovery but the damage to our reputation will take longer to heal. The Rwandan government was immediately blamed even though there was no immediate evidence to hand, events are fluid and evolving by the minute so I will not speculate as to who the suspects are. Kayumba’s wife, Rosette was quick to blame the Rwandan government even though she admits she had no evidence apart from comments by high-ranking government officials about her husband.
In one quote she says our president said he “would use a hammer to kill a fly” I have looked for that exact quote and have failed to find it in its original context. Some say he never said it, others that he was stating that he would stop at nothing to defend our security. However, comments said in such a loose context cannot be seen as evidence of a motive. I was utterly shocked when I heard of the news, my first instinct was believe what the media was saying, that our government was responsible but I am always one to go against the flow of public opinion so I thought about this laterally.
My first question is this. Why would a government that takes so much time to cultivate a positive image globally do something that is so detrimental to its own image? In the olden days in Rwanda men and young women wore a hairstyle called “Isunzu” which symbolized honour. This hairstyle required so much delicate care and attention that it spawned a saying “You never urinate on your own isunzu.” Meaning why spend so much time on garnering honour just to destroy it?
Why would Rwanda risk a diplomatic crisis with South Africa, the most influential power in Africa? Why would they do so knowing they would be the first to be blamed? And why would it be done in such a botched way? Whatever benefits were to be gained would be outweighed by the detrimental effects, no matter how much of a nuisance Kayumba was he was not worth risking our global image.
Kayumba can be divided into two personas; the man and the myth. He is a man who has cultivated his own myth over the years and it is hard to separate the two. He will tell you of how he pacified the Northwest by himself and conquered Congo on his own, how he stopped the genocide on his own. To kill the man would only make him into a superhero or a martyr. To kill Kayumba one would first have to kill the myth he has created for himself. And the myth is impressive though not all true, it is customary for old soldiers to embellish their war record but Kayumba’s myth is beyond plausibility. This myth will not be destroyed by bullets or slander but by the truth. The truth is that Kayumba was at some point a great soldier but because of a great system, serving along with great soldiers for a great cause. He lost his discipline and got a sense of self-importance and eventually turned against the system that created him.
He has become a blank canvas for people to project their aspirations and fears on, both negative and positive. Some see him as the devil incarnate and some as a messiah. The truth is he was a soldier who failed to evolve with the times. Anyone who has listened to his interviews since he defected will have been disappointed, he was not articulate, not focused, and he didn’t have a vision for Rwanda. All he had was sob stories about how he was mistreated, how the system owed him more than they gave him, and tonnes of self-pity. I would have thought that a man who saw himself as an alternative leader would show some leadership qualities.
So we all await to see what the results of the investigation will be, but keep an open mind because what you see is not always true. I understand the pain and anger felt by the Kayumba family, in the heat of the moment it is easy to scream at phantom enemies but it goes beyond revenge to harming our country. Our solid standing and positive image is the result of the hard work and dedication of millions of Rwandans, they do not deserve to be tarnished because of recent events.
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