A former Director of Finance in State House Rwanda and a close associate of President Paul Kagame Kalisa Mupende has died in jail after beating by government forces.
Mupende was also Chairman of Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD).
According to Mr David Himbara who also worked closely with Mupende in the presidency before fleeing the country, Mr Kagame viciously beat up Mupende for allegedly procuring window curtains from a shop Mr Kagame didn’t like.
“Kagame viciously beat up Mupende in front of me and other senior public servants in 2008. Kagame claimed that Mupende and Captain Musekera had bought window curtains for the president’s office from the wrong shop,” said Mr Himbara who now lives in Europe after falling out with the Kigali regime.
After the beating, Kagame, according to Himbara, threw Mupende in jail in 2009.
“He was briefly released in 2015, but thrown back into Kagame’s dungeons. Mupende died on September 20, 2019, while still in prison. During the ten years in prison, the cooked-up charges against Mupende remained a mystery,” said Mr Himbara.
Mupende’s mysterious death comes months after his cousin, a prominent Rwandan model and actress, Alexia Uwera Mupende, 35, was killed at her father’s home in Nyarugunga Sector, Kicukiro District in Rwanda.
Uwera’s sudden death first circulated on social media with a message calling on members of the public to help arrest her alleged killer, a 23-year old house-maid who worked at their home.
Himbara, writing on his medium platform says that Rwandans should be mindful not to work in Rwanda Development Bank which he describes as ‘a kiss of death’.
“For God’s sake, whatever you do, don’t take a job in Kagame’s Rwanda Development Bank. This financial institution is the most dangerous place to work in Rwanda.”
Himbara adds: “The Development Bank of Rwanda’s former CEOs and chairmen either fled Rwanda, or ended up in prison, and even ended up dead in mysterious circumstances. This history surely indicates that there is something terribly wrong with the institution. Take a look at the turnover record at the Development Bank of Rwanda.”
Below is a list of people that Mr Himbara says have had to pay for working at the bank.
1. BRD’s CEO Edith Gasana — decided to leave Rwanda for good.
2. BRD’s CEO Theogene Turatsinze — decided to leave Rwanda for good but was murdered in Mozambique.
3. BRD’s Chairman Henry Gaperi — briefly detained before leaving Rwanda for good.
4. BRD’s CEO Alex Kanyankole — thrown in prison in October 2018.
