Kagame critic dies in California

By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,

KIGALI

Rwandan vocal opposition figure, Anne Rwigara, 41, is dead. She passed on at her home in California , USA on Thursday December 28.

Reports indicate that she died of multiple organs failure following complaints of stomach complications.

Anne Rwigara, is the sister to Diane Rwigara, a renown political rival to Rwandan president Paul Kagame. Diane Rwigara had in 2017 attempted to contest for presidency against Kagame but her dream was cut short after the country’s election regulatory body (Electoral Commission) disqualified her candidature on allegations that her she forged the signatures seconding her candidature.

Known for critiquing Kagame’s government, Anne and her mother Adeline Rwigara spent a year in jail on charges of tax evasion and attempted electoral malpractices between September 2017 and October 2018.

This was after the Rwanda Revenue Authority claimed that the Rwigara family owed $6.7 million in taxes prompting government to close down their businesses and frozen their bank accounts.

Government also sold off their tobacco Business through auctioning which was their last remaining hope.

In October, 2018, the High Court in Rwanda acquitted them of the charges  but their family wealth was already worsened.

According to the deceased mother, Anne did not die a natural death because she was not sick.

“She was not sick. It’s just a matter days. It’s a mystery, ” said grieved Adeline Rwigara.

This is a second tragic death in the Rwigara family after a highly contested mysterious death of their father, businessman Assinapol Rwigara who died in an accident in Rwanda.

The family contested the death and asked president Kagame to investigate this matter but he instead responded by demolishing Rwigara’s Hotel in Kigali.