Editor,

I am pleased that the United Sates is joining the ICTR and the international community in piling pressure on Kenya to hunt down and handover Felicien Kabuga, the most wanted genocide fugitive, who is believed to be hiding in Kenya.

If it is true what the US Special Envoy for War Crimes, Steven Rapp said, that he’d "seen pictures of him in Kenyan neighbourhoods”…even arriving last  night, I received fresh information of his presence in Kenya,”, then it’s a sad state of affairs.

The Special Envoy is echoing the words of the ICTR Chief Prosecutor, who pointed out that Kenya has failed to provide documented evidence indicating Kabuga’s departure from Kenya. Hassan Boubacar Jallow accused the Kenyan authorities of having ceased to cooperate with the UN Tribunal to search for and apprehend Kabuga, who reportedly owns properties and operates business in Kenya.

Kabuga is one of the most-wanted masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi which claimed over 1 million lives and the United States has put a $5 million bounty on his head under the Rewards for Justice Programme. 

If the man is still in Kenya, then the Kenyan authorities have several questions to answer. In the spirit of the East African Community, I shall not say that protecting this man is a government action but rather the actions of a few people, who perhaps in area’s of influence.

I certainly hope that the ‘good guys’ do something quickly because bad blood can quickly manifest between Rwanda and Kenya.

Lilian Nkusi
Nyamirambo