In Rwanda, Diane Rwigara dares Kagame again

In 2017, Diane Rwigara announced intention to run for president and immediate saw 'her nudes' leaked, her was barred from running and arrested with her family, and their property auctioned

KIGALI  | Ms Diane Shima Rwigara has announced her intention to challenge President Paul Kagame in the July 14 presidential election.

At 35 seven years ago, Ms Rwigara attempted to vie for Rwanda's top executive office but what followed her declaration of presidential ambition put her down decisively.

But she might not be an easy specimen and maybe like Arthur Koestler said of Comrade Rubashov in Darkness At Noon, she becomes stronger the more you hammer at her.

And her latest announcement suggests.

"A new chapter for Rwanda begins now," Ms Rwigara declared on X, formerly Twitter.

"Together, we will make history! Join me as I run for President."

Several efforts by the Nile Post to contact Ms Rwigara to confirm the claims on her official handle were futile as she was not responding on her known mobile number.

Rwanda go to the general elections from July 14, with Mr Kagame seeking to extend his stronghold on the central African state to three decades.

Mr Kagame has swept every election since 2003, winning the last by over 98 percent of the vote.

But his critics claim the elections have never been free and fair.

In 2010, Ms Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza arrived in Kigali from exile in the Netherlands with hope of challenging Kagame in that year's election.

But as a recent as last week, she was seeking the intervention of the East African Court of Justice to compel the Kigali authorities to restore her civic right so that she can finally contest in the presidency.

Ms Ingabire was a political prisoner in 2017 when Ms Rwigara announced her campaign to run. She, too, immediately targeted by the country’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

Days after Rwigara’s announcement, nude photos of her were posted on social media. She insisted back then that the image been doctored and were intended to discredit her in a deeply parochial Rwandan society that frowns on racy-lacy outlook.

“They are fake nudes, altered in Photoshop, and it is one of many tactics that has been used to silence me,” she told CNN.

The nude photos appeared to be a precursor to what Rwigara was to face. Several weeks after the photo incident, Rwanda's electoral commission accused her of committing electoral fraud by submitting the names of dead people as supporters.

Rwigara said the claims were “fabricated lies,” adding that the ID numbers the commission said were of dead people were “different from the ID numbers we submitted.”

“I did double the work but the RPF and the national electoral commission cheated me. I do not feel defeated, I feel cheated,” she said.

The electoral commission said she had submitted the name of Augustin Rudahara, who had died at Kibagabaga Hospital on April 16, 2016.

A cemetery in Kigali was at hand to provide the record of the dead man. And there were witnesses who had bought a coffin and paid for the funeral expenses ready to indulge the media.

On the evening of July 7, 2017, the National Electoral Commission approved RPF's Kagame, Frank Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, and former journalist Philippe Mpayimana as an independent candidate.

Ms Rwigara was joined in the cold by Gilbert Mwenedata and Fred Barafinda Sekikubo with electoral commission chief Kalisa Mbanda saying the trio lacked several documents.

Prof Mbanda said his team analysed her 600 nomination signatures submitted by Ms Rwigara and found that three people, who are recorded as deceased, appeared.

“One of the ghost signatures belongs to a person who died at Kibagabaga hospital on April 16, 2016 and buried in Busanza cemetery,” said the commission said.

The three deceased people were Innocent Maniraguha, Desiré Byiringiro and Augustin Rudahara.

From nude photos to ghost signatures, Ms Rwigara was received at the exit by PS Imberakuri party that took her to court saying she had used names of its members without their consent.

Its leader Christine Mukabunani told a news conference that Ms Rwigara submitted names of 34 people who are registered as PS Imberakuri members.

The party itself did not field a presidential candidate and accuses local officials of curtailing its activities.

Ms Rwigara was arrested together her sister Anne and mother Adeline over charges related to tax evasion, incitement of insurrection, forgery; and discrimination and sectarian practices.

“They are accused of tax evasion, and secondly Diane Rwigara is accused of using fake documents while she was gathering signatures for (her) presidential candidacy,” police said at the time.

In 2018, the Rwandan government auctioned off assets of the Rwigara family and in December that year, Diane was acquitted.

Her sister Anne died last December while their father, Assinapol Rwigara, an industrialist and a key financier of the RPF, was killed in a car collision in February 2015 in Gacuriro, Kigali.