General Kagame’s Other Army. By Herman

Major General Paul Kagame’s military machine has had a traumatic experience. His former chief of staff General Nyamwasa went into exile, and was almost assassinated in South Africa. General Nziza was heard on leaked telephone conversations bargaining on the price to kill General Nyamwasa. General Karake, who commanded the UN peacekeeping forces in Sudan was put under house arrest for allegedly sleeping with the wife of General Nyanvumba. General Muhire of the ‘Helicopter Forces’ was arrested for unspecified corruption. And so on and so forth.

A less troubled General Kagame’s army

The fortunes of General Kagame’s ‘other’ army are on the rise. It is an all-female army, young and of new generation – to be near or over forty is unacceptable.

The pre-requisite to join this army is not expertise or experience but willingness to become single-minded in manufacturing and sustaining Major General Paul Kagame’s ‘positive’ image. In return, he gives them all powers to execute this duty. Exclusively Tutsi, these young ladies are only answerable to the General – their immediate supervisors are not only figureheads, they are utterly terrified of these female crusaders.

Here is Kagame’s female crusaders at the ‘command’ level:

* Ines Mpambara, President Kagame’s Chief of Staff, and therefore not only charged with running the Presidency but the nation as well. She is General Kagame’s right hand woman. Her rise to power was spectacular. Within a year in the General Kagame’s presidency, she had crushed all her seniors, including those with decades of policy experiences, PhDs and even a military general. Although armed with only a Bachelor Degree in journalism, she easily competes with her boss in Machevellian ruthlessness and brutality against perceived enemies. She is also a confidante and deputy of the powerful Rwandan First Lady Jeannette Kagame in her Imbuto Foundation.

* Kampeta Sayinzoga, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and wife of President Kagame’s nephew and business partner Byusa. Kampeta is the chief of the Rwandan Treasury and effectively the Minister of Finance – again the Minister is a mere figurehead. How does this young lady manage convince the world, especially donors, that she is not compromised as Rwanda’s treasurer? Her husband and his uncle General Kagame are partners in private business together with Mr Hatari Sekoko in such assets as the London Building that houses Rwandan High Commission and the Kigali City Towers.

* Clare Akamanzi, Chief Operating Officer, Rwanda Development Board (RDB) that now controls almost all parastatals, and privatisation process and investment. RDB you will recall spent considerable amount of resources to run the Rwanda Day in Chicago to promote Major General Kagame. A fortune was squandered in Chicago as RDB shipped a huge entourage from Rwanda and from all over North America to receive the General. She may not be described as able, but Akamanzi is in charge of RDB as its CEO is even more clueless.

* Louise Kanyonga is the Registrar General, under the wing of Rwanda Development Board. She is freshly-minted out of university and with zero work experience but parachuted to this high level position on General Kagame’s orders. Sent overseas on a governmental scholarship, its pay-back time for the youngest Registrar General in the world.

* Diane Karusisi, Director General of National Institute of Statistics has become the new spin doctor. Her statistics only tell good stories on the latest spectacular achievements by General Kagame, prompting a blogger named Uh to quote Aaron Levenstein that ”Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” Let us hope Diane won’t suffer the same fate as her predecessors, including a former Director General imprisoned for several years without charges, who bolted from Rwanda as fast as he could the first chance he got.

* Irene Zirimwabagabo, is effectively the Principal Private Secretary to the Major General, because the man that claims this title is a mere figurehead. She takes care of President Kagame’s own office, including speech-writing. Teamed with Mpambara as her boss, watch out for this one. Irene is another tiger – cross her and you are ‘finished’. How Irene, a self-claimed strict Adventist-Christian, reconciles her values with working for a man said to have murdered countless humans and still at it, is another matter.

* Kagame sisters should not be left out of the picture entirely. Though not formally part of the female army, they operate behind the scenes. They managed his elections, for example, attending to such details as his food to minimise the risk of being poisoned.

* Kagame’s prized 56% female parliament – these are the foot soldiers. They make the General look great on the world stage because he claims this proves he is gender sensitive, more than even Sweden. This is how the General boasts that he has achieved MDGs ahead of the rest of Africa. If you believe this, you are gullible to the extreme. Show evidence of progressive pro-women legislation Kagame female-dominated parliament has ever passed. Begin with abortion for example – the conditions that still face Rwandan women in this regard belong to the dark ages.

The Rwandan narrative under Kagame’s all female army

Under General Kagame’s female army, the Rwandan story is largely about the man himself as opposed to the nation he leads.

The rule is that the General must be portrayed with no flaws whatever, as in the North Korean “model.” According to this model, spare nothing to embellish “the great leader.”

And so it is with General Kagame – embellish ‘the great leader’ or perish. How can an alternative story emerge with the current set up of power-mongering (Mpambara), money-laundering (Kampeta), investment & business registration-control (Akamanzi-Kanyonga), statistics-manipulation (Karusisi), and legitimation (female-dominated parliament)?

Rwandans and the world better get used to being bombarded with images of General Kagame as an award-winning, Africa’s all accomplished personality and ‘great’ leader of global proportions. Thanks in large part to his female army charged with making the General Rwanda’s own Kim Jong II of North Korea. It is a nasty business and dirty job. But someone has to do it.

Source: Africandictator