How Kayumba Nyamwasa made RNC a money minting machine for his family

Rwandan Businessman Benjamin Ndangijimana, is a victim of Kayumba Nyamwasa’s greed, right from the immediate aftermath of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

It is more than a decade now since the Rwandan National Congress (RNC), a terrorist group led by Kayumba Nyamwasa, began its acts of terror against Rwanda and its leadership.

However, their endless attempts to destabilize Rwanda always failed miserably for lack of a valid cause and lack of leadership because Kayumba’s sole goal is to make a quick buck from his newly-found enterprise.

In 2010, Kayumba, a former military official and diplomat of Rwanda, decided to unravel his true character as an insatiable, egoistic individual, when he suddenly fled the country and formed a rebellion against the government he was serving. 

The development only shocked a few people who did not know his true character. To his acquaintances in the military and colleagues from various leadership positions in the country, it was hardly a surprise.

For the decade of its existence, the RNC has been embroiled in internal wrangles with Kayumba right in the middle of so much that all the founding members have since been hounded out.

The shell that has been left is now left to Kayumba, his family and a few gullible sycophants. For him, it is a money-minting machine. He uses it to hoodwink Rwandans living abroad into funding a non-existing organization with all the collections ending up in his pockets.

Those who fail to subscribe to his lies are easily blackmailed by the crafty man that Kayumba is. For some years now, Kayumba has been able to trick some Rwandans to join RNC. He always promises them a better living once they succeed to topple the leadership in Kigali. 

At the beginning, he actively recruited innocent and naïve young people to join his shadowy militia. He understood that it was the only possible way to mobilize funds from various sources, and ill-intentioned countries. 

As years passed by, not only has the RNC terribly failed on its subversion plots against Rwanda for lack of both endorsements by the people and dire weaknesses of an ill-intentioned and greedy commander.

He ‘commanded’ his failed attacks against Rwanda from his luxurious apartment in South Africa and at times from his all-expenses-paid-for posh hotel in Uganda while his recruited and barely trained militias died miserably in the bush, mostly from hunger and disease.  Those who were not scuttled by the DRC army deserted the militia group.

However, the RNC’s terrible state of affairs is far from being a distressing development for Kayumba. His main cause for concern is the fact that the lies he told those that he conned money from are fast catching up with him.

It first came up during the terror trial involving FLN-MRCD suspects where Callixte Nsabimana, alias ‘Sankara’, one of the key suspects and former ally to Kayumba, told court that he left Kayumba because of problems he was facing with funders, who had started asking questions about their investment.

Kayumba made a lot of empty promises and got a lot of money from individuals, and some countries, which all ended up in his pockets. This, according to people who knew him well, had always been his primary goal as he probably knew he would never ever mobilise an effective campaign against Kigali.

The former General, now turned terrorist, comprehended the fact that he could only win the hearts of a few confused and gullible people, hoodwink them into supporting the RNC and extensively extract money from them so as to be able to survive in his self-imposed exile.

Over the years, Kayumba succeeded to fool and recruit a number of people including prominent business people operating in various countries to become members of RNC. In the process, he made sure he extracted enough capital from them.

Until his true character – that of a skillful crook – was revealed, Kayumba was able to accumulate wealth and build his business empire. 

Last week, one of his would-be victims exposed tricks that Kayumba often uses to recruit people and mobilize funds for his family businesses through the RNC.  

Businessman Benjamin Ndangijimana, is a victim of Kayumba’s greed, right from the immediate aftermath of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

But it was only recently, when Kayumba made his last ditch attempt to win him as one of the financiers of RNC, that Ndangijimana chose the right path and exposed Kayumba instead.