‘Africa doesn’t need strong men, it needs strong institutions!’ Barack Obama declared in an epic speech to the Ghanaian parliament. Young Africans have been repeating the catch phrase ever since…
If he says this, one would think, it means in his country institutions are ‘Strong’. Imagine my shock then, when I learned that Rwandan dissidents paid 440.000 USD in order to appear before the US Congress and profane Rwanda and it’s leaders at wish. ‘It’s easy!’ someone said to me: ‘you pay money, you get to meet and sway the American congress’ opinion about any country…’
Was Obama an impostor? Another one, deciding for Africans what they need, while practicing the exact opposite in his own country? How do the American people feel, when the actions of their country towards other nations are driven by interests of cartels and syndicates’?
Do they even know who DAvid Himbara is? Who his sponsor Tribert Rujugiro is? Or to rephrase the questions; do they know who their congressmen hang out with? Is the American Congress like the FIFA executive committee, a club of old cutthroat crooks, auctioning away the future of young talents?
Here is how much Himbara has been paying to the American Lobby firm that gets them all these hearings:
As I watched the hearing, I pitied the American people. You see, being victims is something we Rwandans have gone through, but at least we were well aware of what was happening to us and why, which is how we managed to come out of it. Being a blissful oxymoron to one’s betrayal and exploitation; that’s a terrifying thought!
In Rwanda we have a word: Agaciro! It means self-worth. The concept is enshrined within the Rwandan culture. A fund created recently to phase out foreign aid was given the same name, to signal that within our little means, we believe that dignity is not for sale.
How much is the US Congress worth? How much money does one pay to spend the evening with an American Congressman? Or two of them, and that regardless if the client is a cigarette, drug dealer or a terrorist? How many foreign policy decisions has the United States of America taken, because an evil person paid off their politicians?
I do not believe in the saying ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the apple tree’, or that offspring are likely to behave like their ancestors. But I couldn’t help noticing that Himbara comes from a long line of masters of intrigues. His great-grandfather, Nzigiye, was a famous wine handler for Rwandan King, Kigeli Rwabugiri; what we call in Kinyarwanda: ‘‘Umunyenzoga’, who used his skills to calumniate the entire king’s circle and got them executed one by one, until he was left alone next to the old, drunk king.
True to his legacy, the progeny must have pulled the same tricks when he worked for President Kagame, whom, unfortunately doesn’t drink; so it didn’t work. For 440.000 Thousand American Dollars, Himbara has bought a Member of the American House of Representatives, before whom he and his acolyte Higiro have appeared twice now.
In this post I have not commented on their allegations towards the Rwandan government, because the hearing was simply inconsequential. For one, the US Congress is one of the least trusted of any US public institutions: about 16% approval ratings (http://bit.ly/2fBLKzv); Second, as a friend remarked, ‘they brought the same two guys, two years later, to say the same things, as they continue to pay 150.000 USD per year to a top flight Washington lobbying firm… taints the whole process and discredits it.’ The firm in question is Podesta – a name, as Americans would know, is associated with humiliating failure.
Thirdly, all those allegations were extensively rebutted in the same hearing last time, by the testimony of Mzee Willis Shalita, who appeared alongside them before the US congress. Here is the link to Shalita’s testimony: http://bit.ly/1FxcfKb
Finally, I went on a debate with Himbara on Al-Jazeera, and had the opportunity to debunk his sheer nonsense. The debate was moderated by Mehdi Hassan and it is airing this Friday evening at 7:30 GMT; don’t miss it!