How RNC’s plans to recruit students failed

The Military High Court trying the case of Lt. Joel Mutabazi and 15 others yesterday heard of how the South African-based Rwandan National Council (RNC) attempted to sneak their agents into the country to recruit students from the National University of Rwanda. Among those accused in the terror trial include a group of students from the varsity–that has since been rebranded into the University of Rwanda after a merger–who were arrested for alleged terrorism, inciting the public to rise up against the State, murder and crimes against the State. The prosecutor told the court of how the students were recruited and got involved in the alleged crimes. “Cyprian Nibishaka, a student, travelled to Uganda where he met with RNC members who recruited him, gave him brochures and also tasked him to come to Rwanda and recruit more people,” said the prosecutor. He added that when Nibishaka returned, he started recruiting students. “The brochures clearly indicated the political line of RNC, which was to overthrow the government, meaning that by the time Nibishaka agreed to the RNC cause and went ahead and recruited more people, he was committing an offence,” the prosecution added in their submission. Prosecution also said Nibishaka was not satisfied with the progress and contacted the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). “He attempted to send his fiancée, Pelagie Nizeyimana, a student at the university, to FDLR bases to acquire military training but she was busy with school and she proposed her friend, Dancilla Mukeshimana, also a student at the university,” the prosecutor said. “Nizeyimana later joined Mukeshimana in FDLR and all this was facilitated by Nibishaka.” Prosecution also detailed how Nibishaka called for a meeting at the university whose agenda was the recruitment of new members of RNC. However, Nibishaka denied the charges, saying he only took the brochures for his personal research and shared them with his friends as a way of seeking their opinions. “I had just finished a civic education and leadership course facilitated by Huye District and the Rwanda Patriotic Front, so when I was in Uganda, I met RNC’s Noel Rukundo. I asked him to give me the brochures because they seemed to be interesting,” he said. “I call them interesting because the content was contrary to what we had studied during the civic education course and I thought I would distribute them to my friends for their views.” The students were arrested before they could execute any of the alleged crimes against the State. The trial continues today.