When Lt (Rtd) Joseph Sabena joined the guerrilla war to liberate Rwanda, little did he know that he would end up with a paralysis that would eventually confine him in a wheel chair for the rest of his life. 

However, Sabena’s determination to contribute to the development of the nation can’t be doubted; he heads the retired disabled soldiers’ village in Rugende, Kabuga, where he is secretary and treasurer.

"We are comfortable where we are. The government has and is still taking good care of us, but we also try to play a part in the development of this country. Although we are disabled, we are happy that what we fought for was eventually achieved and we still see how that achievement is being used to build other things,” Sabena said.

Demobilised soldiers at Rugende are given a fully furnished house, a subsistence allowance of Rwf50,000, comprehensive medical insurance and free legal assistance, among other amenities. Sabena joined the Liberation Struggle because of how he was humiliated by some of his neighbours and a loss of feeling of self-righteousness.

"Our parents who fled in 1959 and 1960 always told us stories about Rwanda and how they were persecuted by the regimes of the time. We grew up not feeling like we were wanted on both sides of Rwanda and Uganda during the Milton Obote’s (former Ugandan president) regime,” he adds.

"We once got into a fight while I was studying at Caltec Academy in Kampala after some guys tried to bully Rwandan students. We fought until police intervened, so all that persecution and humiliation was too much for us to take in. But when President Yoweri Museveni went to the bush to fight the bad regime, we started regaining hope.”

Sabena says when Museveni started the liberation war of Uganda, he was joined by Maj Gen Fred Rwigema and President Paul Kagame, who inspired them to join the struggle to liberate Rwanda. 

Sabena met a ‘kadogo’ (slang for child combatant) who told him to join the army so that he could also help when they eventually decide to liberate Rwanda.

"When I met that ‘kadogo’, he gave me another sense of belief in myself and in the passion to go back home. I was youthful and full of energy. Around 1990, I went to Kabamba barracks to join the National Resistance Army of Museveni but I was turned away because the first intake of soldiers was graduating,” he says.

Sabena left for Kampala and joined the First Battalion at Lubiri Barracks where the commanding officer was Maj Chris Bunyenyezi. Although they were NRA soldiers, they knew at the back of their mind that they had to prepare for the liberation of Rwanda. He started attending cadre courses by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (former RANU) and he would go on and teach others about the values and traditions of Rwanda.

"We did everything in secrecy because we didn’t want other Ugandan soldiers to know. In retrospect, we were NRA soldiers but we knew what we wanted to achieve. However, I was unfortunate not to be among the soldiers who launched the struggle,” he adds.

Sabena was in Russia (then USSR) for training. He was told by a friend about the Liberation Struggle but a few days later, he learnt of the shock death of Rwigema. That is when he terminated his course in Russia and returned to join others. He reached Kampala and started making contact with other cadres.

"It wasn’t easy but I manoeuvred and joined others in the Virunga Mountains. I was happy to join them because, finally, I was going to put justification to the reason I joined the army. Unfortunately, I was injured in 1993 when stray bullets hit me in the legs. My wounds worsened because of the poor conditions we were living in,” Sabena says.

Once RPF had a stronghold in Kigali, Sabena was transferred to Kigali Military Hospital where he "lay for a long time, waiting for the agony of his life to end.”

However he is happy that his sacrifice and that of his friends is not going to waste. The ideals they fought for are being implemented.

"We wanted to give, first and foremost, our people a country they are happy and proud of, we wanted unity and development. The struggle to develop this country is not over yet, but we shall continue playing our part,” he says.