A rotten apple, not representative

Since I am a journalist, I always try to pick my words carefully. Bad choice of words can be dangerous. Even after many years, what you said can come back to haunt you. I was strolling through Kigali streets in the early hours of Thursday when I met a group of five people arguing about Jean Baptiste Muhoza. For those who don’t remember; Muhoza is the army deserter who shot and killed six people last Thursday night in Kimisagara, a Kigali City suburb. Muhoza was arrested on Wednesday this week in Choho, a swamp in Bugeserwa where he was hiding. He is now in jail. One young man in the group who identified himself as Frank was saying at the top of his voice that Muhoza’s victims were highly careless. Mistake number No. 1. It is an abomination to speak ill against the dead when they don’t have chance to defend themselves. I moved closer. Frank was saying that all soldiers are bad. That soldiers are trained to kill. “All the soldiers are the same. They are trained to kill at any slightest provocation. How would you demand money from a man in military uniform,” he charged. I saw an element of frustration and anger in him. I tried to explain that not all soldiers are killers. He looked not at me but through me before he replied. “You don’t know what you are talking about. Soldiers are not like you, civilian,” the man answered. I reminded him that what Muhoza did was an individual case. I told the group that in life, you will always find one rotten apple. To say that every person in military uniform is bad is being narrow-minded. Some US soldiers in Iraq have in the past been charged with premeditated murder committed on innocent Iraqis but this does not mean all the soldiers in US are bad. Contact: ssunna2000@yahoo.co.uk