RESIDENTS FIND RWANDAN GOVERNMENT CRITIC BEHEADED IN UGANDA

Residents found the beheaded body of Robert Kabera, a former Rwandan army sergeant major and critic of President Paul Kagame, in a bush near Uganda’s capital, Kampala, on Saturday, Ugandan police said. Police identified the location as Kamengo in Mpigi District and said they had not recovered his head. Superintendent Lydia Tumushabe said residents and Kabera’s brother identified his remains. Police have identified neither a suspect nor a motive and have established no link between the killing and Kabera’s political activities.

Kabera fled Rwanda in 2020 and sought asylum in Uganda, saying he feared political persecution. The Rwandan military had accused him of unlawful sexual contact with a family member, an allegation he denied. He ran Major Robert TV, a YouTube channel with more than 140,000 followers and hundreds of videos, many criticising Rwanda’s government. His family said he had gone to inspect a construction site about 45 kilometres outside Kampala before his death. His widow, Jeanne d’Arc Rwigema Uwizeye, said in a written message: “It is scary. I feel crazy, the children and I don’t have security.”

The exiled opposition group Rwanda National Congress called for a thorough investigation and for those responsible to face justice. The Rwandan government had not commented publicly on Kabera’s killing as of Monday. Patrick Karegeya, a former Rwandan intelligence chief who helped establish the Rwanda National Congress, was found dead in a Johannesburg hotel room in 2014. Karegeya had fled to South Africa in 2007 after serving a prison sentence for insubordination and desertion, and later criticised Kagame’s government.