International
Michela Wrong gets it wrong, again
On
a simple glance, one might think that Michaela Wrong is an ordinary writer. But
she is not. Her relentless mudslinging of Rwanda and its President, Paul
Kagame, points to something sinister. Wrong has, for many years, been working
to tarnish the image of Rwanda. Her recent Op-Ed in British newspaper, The
Guardian, titled “The world is slowly
waking to Paul Kagame’s brutal actions in Rwanda,” is to be seen in that
context.
That
article, which coincided with the visit to Rwanda by French President, Emmanuel
Macron, is her umpteenth attempt to reboot her faltering anti-Rwanda stance
which she initiated with the publication of her inflammatory book, “Do Not Disturb”. The latter is
an eulogy to Patrick Karegeya, former Rwandan chief spy who was murdered in a
hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa, in January 2014.
It
was not a coincidence that in a virtual event held in February 2021 to remember
Karegeya, one of the founding members of the terrorist group, Rwanda National
Congress (RNC), Kayumba Nyamwasa, hailed Wrong’s “tireless efforts to keep this
story alive, which is one of the ways to seek justice, without you very little
would have been known."
When her book was launched, the whole global north media; in London, Washington, and New York, saw in it a blockbuster, a masterpiece of good investigation that was going to deal a fatal blow to the image of President Kagame.
But
as the French saying goes, la montagne a accouché d’un souris. The mountain
gave birth to a mouse. Nothing of the doom and gloom she predicted happened. It
will never happen. President Kagame’s reputation remains, to this date, intact,
regardless of attempts by Rwanda’s haters and detractors such as Wrong’s
unrelenting but unsuccessful efforts.
While
Wrong does her best to muddy President Macron’s visit to Rwanda, other
journalists, on the same day, had a very positive look at the visit. Kim
Willsher and Angelique Chrisafis wrote “Macron visits Rwanda to ‘write new
page’ in French relationship”. Writing in the Guardian that same day, May 27,
Jason Burke, the Africa correspondent wrote: “Kagame the winner as Macron gives
genocide speech in Rwanda”.
Like
in her book, which is a hit job for enemies of Rwanda, in her article, Wrong
wrongly suggests that by welcoming President Macron in Kigali, President Kagame
is effecting “a cynical piece of match-making… a tribute to Kagame’s skill at
identifying new sources of support whenever traditional allies appear to tire.”
Wrong
missed the whole purpose of the French President's visit. In her analysis, Wrong
explains the apparent shift in the perception of Rwanda’s image to what she
labels “an increasingly visible campaign of harassment, detention and
assassination waged by Kagame’s intelligence services for more than a decade,
which has crushed freedom of speech at home and pushed dissent into exile.”
All
that Wrong is doing here is rehashing the same unfounded accusations levelled
by discredited human rights organisations and Rwanda’s so-called dissidents who
are, in truth, people on the wrong side of the law for various reasons. The RNC
leaders including Kayumba Nyamwasa, Maj Robert Higiro, Theogene Rudasingwa who
are using her as their pawn are cases in point.
Wrong also alleges that President Kagame is now targeting his own Tutsi minority, and refers to the well-known cases of Diane Rwigara, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2017, and the death in detention of Kizito Mihigo in 2020. Rwigara’s candidacy was marred by gross irregularities, including falsification of signatures - of people who backed her bid - and using names of deceased people.
As
for Kizito, one recalls Wrong’s praise for his song “The meaning of death”, a
song trivialising the genocide against the Tutsi. In “Rwanda: The Dove’s music united a nation torn by genocide. Why did he
die in a cell?” (Guardian, 14 Feb
2021) , Wrong shows her true colours, as a genocide denier herself.
“Kizito’s
song The Meaning of Death challenged
that narrative, calling on Rwandans to show empathy to both victims of the
genocide and “revenge killings”, as these deaths are termed. Eyes shut,
clutching a rosary, the famous rescapé sings
that death is equally terrible for all,” she wrote.
Kizito, who was on bail because of a presidential pardon, was not arrested because of his revisionist views, but because he broke the law. Investigation into his death found that he committed suicide. Albert Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. The same applies to Wrong’s efforts to tarnish Rwanda’s image and that of President Kagame.