Member of Parliament Logan Ndahiro was yesterday laid to rest at Rusororo Cemetery.

In the official sendoff ceremony held in the Lower Chamber of parliament, Ndahiro was hailed by many mourners as a patriot and a man of integrity.

He passed away on Wednesday night at King Faisal Hospital where he was battling leukaemia.

In a letter read by the Minister in charge of the Presidency, Judith Uwizeye, President Paul Kagame eulogized Ndahiro as a man who will be remembered for his dedication and heroism especially during the liberation war.

"Ndahiro has passed on when his country and family still needed him,” the letter said.

Speaking at the official sendoff ceremony where he lay in state, the Speaker of parliament, Donatille Mukabalisa, said that Ndahiro will be remembered for his commitment and dedication to his work.

This, Mukabalisa said, was evident in how, even at his weakest, he was worried about not being able to make it to office.

"His sacrifice and ideas in the parliament were a clear indication that he used to take his time to read and understand before making assessments and providing ideas which were instrumental in our daily activities,” she said.

Mukabalisa said that besides being a humble and a people-loving person, one other thing that stood out about Logan was his strength, which he carried with him until the end.

"One time I went to visit him in hospital and when it was time for me to leave, he insisted on escorting me. I declined and told him that he had to rest but he insisted. I interpreted that as someone who is trying to comfort me yet it is him who needed comforting,” she said.

She pointed out that Ndahiro was a patriot who loved his country and a man of integrity and had done a lot to prove it.

"He proved how much love he had for his love and his people by joining the others in the war to liberate Rwandans and stop the genocide and he wrote a book to help the young who don’t know this history well to have a reference. This contribution will be his legacy,” she said.

Representing the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi), to which the deceased belonged, Protais Musoni, the Acting Secretary General of RPF, reminded the mourners of the commendable work that Ndahiro had done when he was representing his party in Nyagatare and Gatsibo districts and later in parliament. 

"He was an exemplary, hardworking man and one who sacrificed a lot for his country from exile and then later back home. His love for his country will not be forgotten,” he said.

Liberation memoirs

Ndahiro’s series of articles published in The New Times between 2015 and 2017 chronicled the liberation struggle’s most memorable moments and elicited a lot of interest by the readers, especially the younger generation.

Among his articles included one on the attack on Ruhengeri Prison on January 22, 1991 by RPA and the subsequent freeing of the political prisoners there, some of whom chose to join the rebels.

He also extensively wrote about the rationale behind the change of strategy earlier in the struggle after now-President Paul Kagame took command and the dividends that came with the guerilla approach as opposed to conventional open warfare.

Other articles touched on the establishment of the famous Mulindi area as the headquarters and the high command of the liberation war and why this was specifically chosen, and the subsequent restructuring of the RPF units that brought about more efficiency.

He also wrote about the fierce battle for the RPA to retain what they called ‘Agasentimita’ a small patch of the area they captured inside Rwanda, which would later expand to a sizable territory.

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ABOUT NDAHIRO

Ndahiro joined the RPA (now Rwanda Defence Force) on October 5, 1990 in the early days of the liberation struggle.

He retired from the military in 2001.

Since 1994 after the country was liberated, he served in different capacities in the military as well as other public institutions.

He was also an author, with a keen interest in documenting the history of the liberation struggle.

He was the author of the book, "Inzira y’inzitane yo kwibohora kw’ Abanyarwanda” (loosely translated ‘the challenging journey towards the liberation of Rwandans’) in which he gave a detailed account of the RPF-led campaign to liberate Rwanda.

Born in Nyagatare in Eastern Province in 1951, Ndahiro attended his primary education in Nyagatare before his family – along with hundreds of thousands of other Rwandans – fled from pogroms that targeted the Tutsi to Uganda.

In Uganda, he attended his secondary education and went on to obtain a Bachelor’s degree.

He later went to the United States where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Health.

From 1994 to 2001, Ndahiro worked at the Ministry of Health where he was in charge of the mental health unit. From 2002-2003, he worked with the International Rescue Committee heading the HIV Unit.

Ndahiro was elected to the Chamber of Deputies last year on the ticket of the governing RPF.

He was the oldest member of the Lower Chamber of Parliament.

Ndahiro is survived by a wife and six children.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com