President Paul Kagame on Tuesday shared details of the story of liberation struggle from the start to the end, citing that it was not obvious for his side to win the difficult battle. Kagame who led the military wing of the RPF Inkotanyi to liberate Rwanda and put an end to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, pointed out that the struggle was characterized by remaining principled and consistent to the mission, despite significant setbacks. When the struggle started, Kagame said that RPA soldiers never underestimated it. We understood its magnitude and the weight of the work we had, but it turned to be much harder than we thought it would,” Kagame said during an engagement with content creators in the country. The engagement took place at the National Liberation Museum Park at Mulindi, in Gicumbi District. The park was for the largest part of the four-year liberation struggle the political and military headquarters. During the interactive session, Kagame divulged details of how he ended up at the US-based military college of Fort Leavenworth back in 1990, saying that initially, the Late Maj Gen Fred Rwigema had been nominated for the course. Kagame said that he offered to take the Command and General Staff Course at the college that is based in the State of Kansas so as not to disrupt the preparations for the liberation struggle which they had already embarked on while serving in Uganda’s National Resistance Army (NRA). At the time, Rwigema was heading in the efforts to mobilise Rwandans to launch the liberation struggle, after all peaceful means had failed for Rwandans refugees to return home. Kagame was also a senior officer in the NRA. ALSO READ: Kwibohora 30: Kagame's Liberation Day speech ALSO READ: Rwanda’s liberation struggle and its lessons for the youth “He (Rwigema) was our leader and I told him that if he went that meant postponing our plans for the next five years or more.” Kagame said that at the time, several senior officers of Rwandan origin who were in NRA were set to be dispatched for courses in different country, and they got a hunch that the authorities in their host country could have gotten wind of their covert efforts to mobilise to return home. “I went back and told Fred that our discreet plans had been discovered...to survive this and we continue our plans, I asked him (Rwigema) to stay and continue doing what we have been trying to do, but when things start, I would find my way back easily.” Despite the plot, however, Rwigema died on the second day of the launch of the struggle, a tragedy that forced President Kagame to cut short his training in the US and return to take on the mantle as the leader of the struggle. Rwanda marked the 30th anniversary of liberation (Kwibohora 30), on Thursday, July 4, an annual ceremony that seeks to celebrate the bravery and selflessness of the men and women of the RPF-Inkotanyi, under the leadership and command of President Paul Kagame, who liberated Rwanda and stopped the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
