SHOULD KAGAME'S ENEMIES BE ORDINARY CONGOLESE?

What Paul Kagame can learn from his Death Romours

By John Blanshe Musinguzi

Yesterday (Monday 10^th January, 2014) morning, false news from nowhere spread like wildfire that president of republic of Rwanda-Paul Kagame had died. With new media technologies and social networking sites, it spread from one side of the globe to the other side in seconds.

The government of Rwanda was quick to dispel those romours about president’s demise. "The president is currently meeting US students as part of his routine audiences. You are free to come and attend the audience and meet him as well," an official from president’s office told AFP.

However these romours were good news for Goma residents prompted who to streets and celebrated death of kagame instead of sending condolences to Rwanda as a nation or even Rwandese living in DRC. Tradionally, when a person dies everyone is supposed to cry or have a feeling of sympathy towards family and relatives of such a person even if such a person is your number one foe.

According to Cordelia Hebblethwaite, BBC reporter in DRC hundreds of people marched down the main street in Goma towards the Rwandan border to celebrate what the reporting of false news. They even carried a fake coffin and a cross. Smaller scenes and cases of people honking their horns were reported in a number of cities across DR Congo.
I personally never believed that Kagame died. First he takes his personal security as a first priority before thinking about national security. Secondly he is a healthy man. May be if such romuors referred death of Robert Mugabe-president of Zimbabwe who is ever ill, I would partially accept. Thirdly we had previously news about him gracing the function to start activities for commemoration of 20yrs after genocide.
This was unfortunate for him and he must take few serious lessons from such ‘bad news’ and jubilation in Goma.
First, he must refrain from intervening in domestic affairs of DRC. How comes that only Goma citizens are the one who celebrated romours about his death?. His government has been accused of fueling havoc in DRC. Rwanda and Uganda were accused of supporting Tutsi that ousted Mobutu. Rwanda was too accused of masterminding plans for assassination of Laurent Kabila in 2012. Rwanda government was accused of supporting M23 rebels who were defeated in late 2013.
Secondly, local Congolese have had enough violence. It’s time for Rwanda to give them a breathing space. There is nothing they can enjoy other than peace. Such a celebration was an expression of their emotion and they felt that it was the right. Kagame must think twice before engaging in affairs of DRC again.
Thirdly, there could a plan to assassinate him. As a general, he knows what to do as far as security is concerned. Romours have been circulating that Rwandan government was behind murder of renegade Col Patrick Karegeya-former head of intelligence before falling out with government in 2014. He was murdered on first

January in this year in South Africa.
 My friend Andrew Mwenda defends kagame at all costs against murder of karegeya but he has not elaborated why government is always the prime suspect as further as murder of those opposing his government. 
Fourthly, Why should he be accused of murdering and imprisoning Rwanda’s opposition figure?. Whereas he has succeeded in infrastructure development and fighting poverty, he has totally failed in giving dissent political groups space in domestic politics of Rwanda. This what is lacking in Rwanda for it to be a model country in Africa as far as democracy and democracy is concerned.