Ingabire Victoire: A Rwandan opposition politician or criminal on parole?

Author: Gad Ntambara

• 2024-03-20 06:24:00

The high court on March 13 denied the request by Ingabire Victoire to be rehabilitated because her request did not comply with the law relating to the presidential pardon.

Apart from other conditions set for convicts on parole like presenting themselves before authorities at set periods to assess whether they are truly reformed to ask for rehabilitation, the law stipulates that rehabilitation happens five years after completing a jail term.

In 2010, Ingabire was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison in 2012, which increased to 15 years after appeal, for crimes related to conspiracy against the government of Rwanda, trivializing the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, as well as intentional spreading of rumors. Though she was granted presidential pardon in 2018, her 15-year sentence will end in 2025. As such, her earliest time to apply for rehabilitation will come in 2030. 

Consideration of the rehabilitation request depends on her general conduct as would be determined by the court, after satisfying the condition that she has completely abandoned the criminal activities for which she was convicted.

Before the court denied Ingabire rehabilitation, prosecution informed the court that she should not be granted rehabilitation because after her release, she engaged in activities that were contrary to conditions of the Presidential pardon.

Among others, Ingabire continued to be the leader of FDU-Inkingi and the DALFA-Umurinzi, well knowing that both outfits are illegal organizations in the country.

In 2019, FDU- Inkingi was linked to terror attacks in Kinigi, Musanze, in Northern Province, that killed 14 people and injured 18 others. FDU-Inkingi was founded by genocide suspects and ideologues. Although Ingabire does not fall in the category of genocide suspects, her actions, have demonstrated that she harbors genocide ideology and is a proponent of the double genocide theory.

Before Ingabire applied to court for rehabilitation, she knew that it would be denied since she did not meet the provisions of the presidential pardon.

However, the timing of the request simply explains the motive. As Rwandans prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections, in July, Ingabire wanted attention and to send a message, especially to her Western allies, that, ‘here I am, I am presidential material.  I want to be a presidential candidate but Kagame’s regime in Rwanda is stopping me from exercising my rights.’

Indeed, Western media picked the story like a hot cake. The BBC headline screamed, “Victoire Ingabire: Rwandan opposition leader barred from election,” and Aljazeera news went as far as calling her an opposition MP, a position she has never held.

The branding of Ingabire as “a fierce opposition politician and Kagame’s challenger” is the making of voices from the global north and its media. But according to the law of the land and to majority Rwandans, she is a person who does not qualify to be a politician or a leader at any level because her mindset is still inclined to ethnic divisions that led to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

There is irrefutable evidence that Ingabire has a history of working with individuals and armed terror groups bent on destabilizing Rwanda. In December 2010, the Dutch Police searched her house in the village of Zevenhuizen, close to Rotterdam in the Netherlands where she lived before returning to Rwanda.

Among the documents and emails found on her personal computer was proof of Ingabire’s collaboration with members of FDLR, a terrorist group that operates in eastern DRC. This is a group formed by remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The FDLR is now spreading genocide ideology in DRC, with intentions to extend attacks to Rwanda and complete the genocide.

In recent media interviews, Ingabire said that she supports a Congolese militia group known as Wazalendo, which is part of a coalition with FDLR and the DRC government forces (FARDC) to persecute and kill Congolese Tutsi in eastern DRC. As the English saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Ingabire shares the same hatred for the Tutsi and genocide ideology, with FDLR and Wazalendo. 

Those who wish Rwanda to have a “politician” like Ingabire are wishing the country to turn backwards to its bitter past of ethnic discrimination that resulted into the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

It is one thing to wish to be a politician and another to have the required credentials.

Ingabire needs self- rehabilitation first to abandon her genocide ideology and the double genocide mindedness before running to courts for rehabilitation for the sake of qualifying for competitive political positions.