Published on Mar 23, 2014
HOST: Serge Ndayizeye
GUEST: Leah Karegeya
TOPIC : LATE COL PATRICK KAREGEYA YABANYE N'ABANTU BESHI CYANE ATAROBANYUYE
Leah Karegeya: My Husband Has Died for all Rwandans
Patrick Karegeya (Mbarara, 1960 -- Johannesburg, 1 January 2014) was a head of intelligence in Rwanda. After being twice thrown in jail over alleged indiscipline, desertion and insubordination, he was stripped of his rank of Colonel in 2006 and went into exile in 2007
Karegeya was born in Mbarara in southwestern Uganda. He attended Makerere University where he earned a Bachelor of Law degree.
He joined the National Resistance Army in Uganda but was arrested in June 1982 and charged with treason, spending three years in jail.
Later he joined President Yoweri Museveni in the struggle that led to the overthrow of Milton Obote. He was a lieutenant in Ugandan military intelligence when the decision to invade Rwanda was made, at a time when his friend Paul Kagame was studying in the USA.[1]
From 1994 to 2004 Karegeya was Director General, External Intelligence in the Rwandan Defence Forces.[1] As chief of intelligence in Rwanda he had great power.
Karegeya was arrested and served an 18-month sentence for desertion and insubordination.[2] He was stripped of his rank of Colonel on 13 July, 2006 by a military tribunal and fled the country in 2007.[1] Later, Kagame claimed that Karegeya was in the pay of South African military intelligence.[3]
In August 2010 Karegeya told the Ugandan paper, The Observer, that Kagame was a dictator who would not leave power unless he was forced out by war.[4] The same month he told the BBC that Kagame had ordered a series of political killings.[5]