The Lion Of Rwanda: President Kagame’s Success Story

In life some people are just lucky. They wake up one day, and trip on success. Just like that without intention, effort, and long hours of hard work they become winners.

On the contrary, With President Kagame it’s the total opposite.

His success was not a result of good luck. Or good looks! Victory for him was a slow, gradual process of hard work, intention, purpose, and resilience.

There are places favorable for good luck, and believe me the refugee camp that Kagame grew up in is not one of such fortunate places.

As a matter of fact, the refugee camp is a place where a person is most likely to meet bad luck. I was born there. I’m thinking from experience.

The bad things we encounter in life often breaks us apart. It’s only a fortunate few who emerge out of chaos, out of trouble stronger than ever before.

That’s what happened to President Kagame. The challenges in his life, in addition to all problems his family and people were going through, made him stronger, wiser, and self determined.

“We carved a destiny in the wilderness” My Brother Kabano JB used to tell me. Referring to all Rwandese Tutsis who lived in refugee camps in Uganda. Bless his soul.

I think that’s exactly what President Kagame did.

In that wilderness of statelessness and exile, in that refugee crisis in Uganda camps, Kagame carved a new destiny for himself, his family, and his people.

His rebirth as a great extraordinary human being was deliberate, intentional, desirable and urgently needed.

He had a scorching longing for freedom deep in his heart, high in his mindset that he had to fulfill by all means possible.

That desire to get out of the camp of misery, indignity, and suffering he shared with so many Rwandese including Major General Fred Gisa Rwigyema. Who later became the highest ranking Rwandese Tutsi in Museveni’s NRM political party, army, and government.

There’s no doubt that General Gisa’s long strides to freedom inspired but most importantly paved a path for many other Rwandese Tutsis.

Gisa & Kagame

It goes without saying that the desire to be free, and to go back home was a general feeling shared by all Rwandese who lived in exile.

All Gisa did in those dark days was to grab a torch a run forward with it, hence lighting up a path of freedom that would later lead his people back home.

While Gisa ran forward with the torch of freedom, Kagame and so many other Rwandese boys, girls, men and women were right besides him, running forward as well, supporting and contributing selflessly.

They all wanted the same thing, unconditional freedom, and a country to call their home.

This is how minority groups survive and succeed.

They all stand up at once and run forward so that when one stumbles and falls, there’s another one behind him to carry on without pausing, stopping, or hesitating.

This is exactly what happened after Gisa was shot on the second day of Rwanda’s liberation struggle.

President Kagame emerged, took the torch and resumed the March forward, home.

4 years later, on July 4th, Rwanda was liberated. And the genocide against Tutsi was ended.

Something the international community had failed to do. Over a million people were killed in the 1994 genocide against Tutsi. Bless their souls.

The first Triumph: Stopping the Genocide Against Tutsi

Stopping the 1994 genocide against Tutsi was the first triumph of President Kagame.

The United Nations army led by general Romeo had failed miserably to stop the killings. To make it worse, UN soldiers were ordered to leave Rwanda. Imagine that!

People who were supposed to be peace keepers, abandoned victims of the genocide in broad day light, in so many instances exposing and handing them over to be killed.

General Kagame, acted swiftly and ordered Inkotanyi soldiers to take over Rwanda, but most importantly to stop the genocide against Tutsi. Which is exactly what Inkotanyi did as fast as was possible.

The inhumane goal of the genocidal regime, interahamwe militia, and other participating hutus was to wipe out all Rwandese Tutsis from the face of the universe.

They wanted to kill them all, including unborn babies. Many testimonies tell shocking stories of how pregnant Tutsis women were cut open, and their unborn babies smashed on the walls and trees. Imagine that!

Thank God Inkotanyi soldiers stopped that genocide, otherwise Rwanda would have died alongside all Tutsis.

The Second Triumph: No revenge

Most if not all Inkotanyi soldiers including General Kagame himself, had relatives in Rwanda who were being hunted and killed in the genocide against Tutsi. Nonetheless, General Kagame gave them ironclad orders to not seek or attempt revenge.

So many times Kagame asked Inkotanyi soldiers:

“If you do the bad the things that your enemy is doing, what is the difference between you and the enemy you are fighting”

“What is the difference between you and them?” Asked General Kagame often.

If there are cases of soldiers who may have sought and attempted revenge, they did it on their own against the orders of their commander.

It is well known and documented that General Kagame ordered all Inkotanyi soldiers not to seek revenge and kill hutus who had participated in the genocide atrocities.

In so many cases, some soldiers, after seeing the corpses of their family members, would go and shoot the people who did it, and then turn and kill themselves.

Inkotanyi soldiers who attempted revenge would be arrested and punished in accordance to the law.

For Kagame to manage and control grieving soldiers who had lost their family members in the genocide against Tutsi, yet had loaded guns in their hands, was greatness by itself.

Note that Kagame’s aunt and last queen of Rwanda was also killed in the genocide against Tutsi. He, too, could have wanted revenge but he didn’t. As didn’t his fellow soldiers. He set an example.

It was selflessness, it was heroic not to seek revenge. Inkotanyi put nation over personal pain. Amazing!

The Third Triumph: Unity & Reconciliation

After the liberation of Rwanda President Kagame and his fellow leaders alongside Rwandese had to choose a path forward.

The first thing they did was to get rid of everything that looked tribal. They threw out tribal politics, tribal employment, tribal education, tribal citizenship, tribal behavior, and mindset.

They decided that Rwanda will be a country only for Rwandese, no one else, nothing else.

They also decided on a new collective name to replace the catastrophic tribal names.

And that national name given to all Rwandese is ‘Umunyarwanda”. “Rwandese”

There and then, they decided and made a vow to never go back. And that vow is renewed by every Rwandese, every April 7th, that “Never Again genocide”.

I’ll probably write a book about the success story of President Kagame and the resurrection of Rwanda. But for now, let me pause here.