Victoire Ingabire, an embattled politician, will not let her ratings sink.
She took a lengthy shot at something that pundits say is like opening a gun powder keg.
Ingabire wrote a letter to the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) through her lawyer Gatera Gashabana accusing Tom Ndahiro of openly humiliating and insulting her.
Asked about the allegations made about him, Tom Ndahiro said in a blog post he will publish on August 4 he will react to them.
In a letter obtained by RIB on 22 July 2019, Gashabana argues that Tom Ndahiro, a Rwandan researcher and expert in denial and ideology of genocide, supposedly insulted her in his numerous texts, such as the one he wrote on 13 May 2018 at 10:51 a.m. titled, ‘Kwemerera Ingabire Gukora Politiki Ni Uguhembera Urwango’, loosely translated as Allowing Ingabire To Do Politics Is Sparking Hate’.
The articles were published in local tabloids.
Ingengabitekerezo ya Jenoside, ihakana n’ipfobya ryayo bikorwa n’abantu, bikagaragara mu byo bakoze kandi bagikora. Ababikora ntibatandukana no kwigisha amacakubiri n’ivangura. | #RwOT
✍ @TomNdahiro
Abakwiza ingengabitekerezo ya Jenoside bakwiye akato :https://t.co/mGfo8m4pYD— IGIHE (@IGIHE) July 31, 2019
.@cnni this @VictoireUmuhoza is not what you ignorantly think she is. She is a criminal and #GenocideAgainstTutsi ideologue per se! It is #FakeNews & rewriting of history to say she was convicted as "a result of her work as a prominent government critic"https://t.co/pgwwsGCxH1
— Tom Ndahiro (@TomNdahiro) July 28, 2019
The title and the phrases that followed, according to Gashabana and his client, significantly harmed Ingabire’s reputation and picture, particularly as Tom Ndahiro defined her as someone who has deep-rooted genocide ideology, hate, psychological numbness, and ethnic segregation.
Accordingly, the paper itself exudes defamation and public humiliation, offences that are punishable by law in the event that the accused individual is found guilty.
Arrested in 2010, Ingabire was found guilty of inciting the masses to rebel against the government, forming armed groups to destabilize the country, and denying the Tutsi Genocide of 1994.
In 2013, Ingabire conviction was upheld at Supreme Court’s appeal, which saw her eight-year sentence in the lesser court increase to 15 years in prison.
She was freed on presidential pardon together with 2140 other convicts on September 14, 2018.
On the other hand, Ndahiro, a renowned researcher with unquestionable knowledge of genocide against the Tutsis, and especially in cases like Ingabire’s, may not be a good pick for her to start a fight.
Now that Ndahiro was prompted to react, what might come out of his post might be able to reveal what Ingabire might not have wanted to become public knowledge matters.
Attached below is Victoire Ingabire letter.
