The week of August 23 to 30 saw the chronicle of the illness and death of the Rwandan head of state, President Paul Kagame, resurface with greater force.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, at least one photo of a sick person, a death certificate, articles and social media posts have been published regarding the alleged ill health and disappearance of Mr. Kagame.
Great Lakes had already noticed the activism in this area of Mr. Thomas Nahimana, a former Catholic priest who became a political opponent in exile in France and self-proclaimed president at the head of a government in exile since the beginning of 2017.
Recently a 55-minute video in Kinyarwanda of Mr. Freeman Singirankabo Bikorwa (we repeatedly asked him without success if this was his real identity) was published on YouTube. As she announced in her title that she was going to deal with the underside of the disappearance of President Kagame, we took the time to listen to her from start to finish.
Our disappointment was great since at no time in his video did Mr. Singirankabo provide the beginnings of proof of the alleged disappearance of the Rwandan president.
On the other hand, he engages in photo/video editing exercises to demonstrate that the images published by the Rwandan authorities would be manipulated.
We were able to communicate with him on WhatsApp thanks to his cell phone number displayed on the video.
We introduced ourselves to him personally, spoke to him about the Great Lakes Check project and explained our intention to verify with him his claims regarding the disappearance of Paul Kagame.
Mr. Singirankabo did not give us any beginning of proof, he told us on the other hand that it would be up to the Rwandan judicial authorities (RIB, Rwanda Investigation Bureau) to prove that he was wrong and especially for the person concerned to demonstrate that he has not disappeared.
We explained to our interlocutor that it was up to the author of an assertion to provide proof and not to the person accused. We gave him the example of trials where the burden of proof falls on the prosecution and not the accused party.
Regarding the manipulation of images, we pointed out to him that these exercises did not concern live images even though President Kagame has appeared numerous times for almost 6 months in high-level meetings by videoconference. He replied that these live broadcasts could, according to his expertise, also be manipulated.
A few days after these exchanges, the affair experienced a global twist since the pan-African television VoxAfrica interviewed the former Rwandan Catholic priest Thomas Nahimana about the alleged disappearance of the Rwandan head of state.
The video extract from this interview was shared widely but is no longer accessible today. Since then, the management of VoxAfrica has published a press release explaining that the entire interview would not be published on its site because the guest had not provided proof of what he was saying. This time it would be brain death but no details are provided on the circumstances. Surprisingly, the interviewer began his exercise by stating that “Everyone knows he is sick.” Where, since when, from what, how, etc. NOTHING apart from the words of Mr. Nahimana presented as the most important Rwandan opponent who would have credible chances of one day being at the head of Rwanda. Ignorance, distraction or concealment his current status as Rwandan president in exile was not mentioned.
The Rwandan authorities have chosen not to react to this whole controversy and to continue going about their business. We were able to speak with one of its former spokespersons who told us that the Rwandan government would maintain this line and that the facts would speak for them.
At this stage of the (non)disclosure of evidence, the claims that the Rwandan head of state has been missing for several months are not credible, being supported by nothing.
