Leave Karegeya to rest in peace, please

Death – whether by illness, accident, murder or simply old age – is unfortunate and regrettable. It is usually a moment of great sadness and pause for reflection – perhaps on our own mortality. Common decency dictates that no sensible person can rejoice publicly even at the death of a sworn enemy.Similarly, it is extremely uncultured to jump on the death of an individual in order to make a political statement, score cheap points, resurrect a dead organisation, or shore up flagging careers.Equally, etiquette decrees that it is utterly despicable to latch on to someone’s death so as to spew your hatred on another person as a way of regaining lost relevance.In a traditional African setting, doing any of these things amounts to dancing on the grave of the dead person. Another name for that is sorcery or witchcraft, both evil and abhorrent practices.Regrettable as it is, this is what the death of Patrick Karegeya in a South African hotel a few days ago has done. All manner of creatures, cowards and charlatans, traitors and turncoats, and those choking on hate, many of them with dark pasts – of theft and murder, embezzlement and betrayal of personal and public trust – and threatened with obscurity, have all jumped on Karegeya’s death to draw attention to themselves and their deadly causes.As a result, his people have not been able to grieve and mourn in peace and dignity. Nor, I suppose, has his soul been allowed to rest in peace. The police, too, face interference in their investigations.One of the organisations taking advantage of the death of Karegeya is the Rwanda National Congress (RNC). The RNC was stillborn, but its progenitors still hold the dead baby in their arms hoping and waiting for a miracle to happen. The death of Karegeya must have seemed to them to be that long-awaited miracle. It was supposed to resurrect the RNC that had never seen the light of day.So Kayumba Nyamwasa, who is fast becoming irrelevant, uses Karegeya’s demise to remind the world that he and the RNC are still around. It is an obscene way of staking his claim to any sort of importance.Thousands of miles away in the cold (dis)comfort of Washington, Theogene Rudasingwa, who has not been heard of in a long time, seizes the opportunity to announce he is still alive and capable of making wild claims. In characteristic fashion, Rudasingwa sees the death as an opportunity to break out of his loneliness and maybe lift his misery a little. You can bet he would grab it with both hands. And he did. Typical Theogene Rudasingwa.Not to be outdone, the forgettable Carina Terstsakian of the virulently anti-Rwanda Human Rights Watch, whose only claim to fame (notoriety) is her rabid hatred for the government of Rwanda, is quick on the scene to offer her hateful support to the other two.For sheer virulence and vitriol, Ian Birrell beats the lot. Birrell can’t stand hearing Paul Kagame’s name. He has been there many times before, hurling insults at a man who is civil enough to engage him in a twitter exchange.Many Rwandans remember his name but find it difficult to pronounce. To them it sounds like Birere.It is difficult to understand why Birrell or Birere hates Kagame so much when the latter has actually been very kind to him. By merely accepting to chat with him, President Kagame helped revive Birrell’s professional stock. The insults then and now were unnecessary. This is a case of ingratitude, like the proverbial donkey that kicks its benefactor.It is customary not to talk ill of the dead. I respect that injunction and will not break it. But decorum also forbids washing away their unrepented sins, which is exactly what Birrell does. He claims that Karegeya fell out with the current government because of his principled stand on human rights.Few people remember Karegeya ever making that claim because he couldn’t. It must be Birrell’s own creation. Many will remember him for totally different habits. For instance, he was known to jump in bed, literally, with genocidaires and to plot with them war against his country. It was common knowledge that he had treasonable ties with foreign governments.This is not talking ill of a dead man. It is telling it as it is because Karegeya was a self-confessed enemy of Rwanda.Now he is gone. It is only fair that he should be left to rest in peace. His associates are naturally bereaved, but their manner of showing it is most unnatural. They, and others not quite connected to him but always eager to exploit any situation for their selfish ends, are intent on making profit from his demise.Please spare a thought for him and don’t unsettle his soul.Blog: josephrwagatare.wordpress.com

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Leave Karegeya to rest in peace, please