{UAH} How the former Rwandan spymaster was assassinated - East Africa News - thecitizen.co.tz

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How the former Rwandan spymaster was assassinated - East Africa News

Slain former Rwandan spymaster Patrick Karegeya. Rwandan opposition groups have been rattled by his murder in a Johannesburg hotel. PHOTO | FILE 

In Kigali, where he owns a $1 million sophisticated theater located at Nyamirambo suburb known as Cine Star Cinema. The man is known as humorous, down to earth and intelligent person,  one of  Rwanda's emerging entrepreneur.

But, behind the scenes, Mr Apollo Gafaranga, a man accused of killing former Rwanda's spymaster Patrick Karegeya in Johannesburg's Sandton Michelangelo Hotel on the New Year eve, is more than a businessman - he is a trained spy and assassin, if the latest details emerging from Johannesburg are authentic.

According to South Africa's weekly investigative newspaper, Mail& Guardian,Apollo befriended Karegeya about four years ago whereby the alleged hit-man cultivated his relationships with the former Rwanda's head of external security to the level where the latter hosted him in his house in Johannesburg.

 But, little did Karegeya know that his friend was in actual sense the biggest enemy who is in a mission to assassinate him.

 To conceal his identity, Apollo is believed to have bought 'a South African passport, which he used whenever he entered South Africa, according to Mail & Guardian report.

 But, according to the newspaper, the passport may have been a fake one. It's not clear why South African authority failed to detect the allegedly fake passport that Mr Apolo used to enter into the country several time via OR Tambo International Airport.

 The Mail & Guardian quoting some close relatives to the assassinated former spy-master, reported that in most cases when Apollo used the South African passport, he didn't travel direct from Rwanda.

If Karegeya's friends and colleagues are correct, reported Mail & Guardianyesterday, it would indicate an intelligence failure on the part of South African authorities.

 "Political asylum seekers such as Karegeya claim the South African authorities had offered them protection. Meanwhile, an alleged agent of the Paul Kagame regime was frequently in their midst, evading airport security checks with false documents, and courting their inner circle with a view to commit murder." The Mail & Guardian reported.

Rwanda's ambassador to South Africa Vincent Karega, in an interview with theWall Street Journal, distanced Kigali from Karageya's death.

"Even though he (Karageya) declared himself an enemy of Rwanda, we didn't see any threat. Rwanda wasn't involved," he said.

 So far no anyone has been arrested by the South African authorities.

‎ But, within the Rwandan political-refugee community living in South Africa, there is one clear suspect involved in Karegeya's crime: a man called Apollo Gafaranga.

The Rwandan press called him a "business mogul"; he opened a cinema worth $1 million in 2009. His brother, Mr Amini Gafaranga, appears close to the Kagame regime, speaking at Rwanda Day celebrations in London in May 2013, an event endorsed by Paul Kagame.

Two close friends of Karegeya, who spoke to the Mail & Guardian claimed Gafaranga had spent years earning the former spy chief's trust, travelling to South Africa on at least four occasions, where he would be Kareyega's house guest.

And he always travelled with fake documents, they claim.

But on his final and fatal visit, Apollo asked to be booked in a hotel, instead of staying at Karegeya's house.

According to Mail & Guardian this was because he was increasingly fearful of the Kagame regime, Apollo claimed, and he told Karegeya he did not want to jeopardize his friend's security by staying in his house.

 Up to this point, the former Rwanda's spymaster turned enemy of the Kigali regime didn't notice any hidden motive.

Kareyega then booked the hotel room at the Michelangelo Towers in Sandton. Karegeya picked his guest upon his arrival and drive him to the hotel where he has booked him. That's was December 29, according to South Africa's media reports.

 The two arrived at the Sandton Hotel, checked in and later on Karegeya left his friend, promising to visit him on the new year for further political and business discussions.

On New Year eve, Karegeya went to visit his friend, without knowing that would be his end, because the man he thought was a friend and a possible financier in his bid to defeat Rwandese regime was indeed a trained assassin.

 Karegeye had no reason to be suspicious of Apollo because the latter had been part of Karegeya's informal network of informants during his tenure as foreign minister of intelligence in Kagame's government.

And now, it's likely Karegeya believed he was helping a fellow-oppositionist escape Kigali.

‎"It's not unreasonable to help those escaping Rwanda," Ntwali said.

Karegeya had earlier informed his nephew that he was going to visit his friend, Apollo, at Michelangelo Towers Hotel. On the New Year eve when Kareyega did not respond to text messages or phone calls, his nephew became suspicious and went to the hotel.

 His nephew then went to the Michelangelo, where he discovered that the hotel room where Karegeya had gone for a meeting was locked.

The manager wouldn't open the door as there was a "Do Not Disturb" sign on it. The police were called and opened the door.

It is believed that three or four men were involved in the crime.

Karegeya was found dead. Curtain tie-backs and a pillow case were found in the safe. Garafanga was gone, taking only his cellphone and wallet, but leaving his suitcase behind.

Informal network of informants

 Mr Frank Ntwali, Africa regional chairperson of the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) – the opposition party that Karegeya helped to form – believes Apollo entered South Africa from a different African country on every visit, to avoid detection.

According to Mail & Guardian, Mr Ntwali last saw the former Spymaster on December 28, when the two had dinner and discussed their political plans for the new year.  According to Mr Ntwali, Mr Karegeya was upbeat.

 At this point, the former intelligence chief was well aware that Apollo was en route.

 "About four months ago, he [Apollo] made contact with Patrick and claimed Kagame's government was harassing him and had closed his business. He asked Mr Karegeya to help him set up a new life in South Africa, and help him start a business here." Mr Ntwali was quoted by Mail &Guardian‎.

‎According to another friend of Karegeya and fellow-exile, who asked not to be named for security reasons, Kareyega had protection from the South African government but asked the authorities to back off, about a year ago, because he felt his movements were too restricted.

Mr Ntwali confirmed this. Mr Karegeya, according to sources, had grown complacent, despite a keen sense of persecution by Rwandan opposition leaders living in South Africa.

Who was Patrick Karegeya?

Mr Karegeya, Rwanda's former intelligence chief found dead and believed strangled in a Johannesburg hotel, was  described last week by Agency France Press as a brilliant spy who appears to have fallen foul of the assassination tactics he once reportedly practised on others.

"He was a person who paid attention to detail. He was articulate and intelligent," an Ugandan intelligence officer told AFP, asking not to be named for fear of harming Rwanda-Uganda relations.

"He was on the watch list after fleeing to South Africa" into exile in 2007, the officer added.

Karegeya, who died aged 53, grew up in southwestern Uganda and studied law at the famous Makerere University.

He was "a brilliant intelligence officer and very knowledgeable," said Major James Kazoora, a retired Ugandan army officer who served with Karegeya, noting that his "roots were in Uganda".

He initially served in Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA), before joining the ranks of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, then a rebel group led by Mr Paul Kagame and now.

Slightly plump and fond of casual clothes, Mr Karegeya wore rimless spectacles and came across as an affable, rather than fearsome, spy.

Mr Karegeya was for a long time very close to Mr Kagame and served as head of Rwanda's external intelligence for about a decade.

"He works 24 hours a day," said a friend when Mr Karegeya was still spy chief. "He might look like he's relaxing but he's actually doing his job."

However, he fell out of favour and was demoted to army spokesman. He was later arrested and jailed for "indiscipline" and stripped of his rank of colonel in 2006.

He fled to exile the following year and became a fierce Kagame critic and prominent member of the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), the opposition party in exile.

"He was a very warm person and he was very comfortable with all sorts of people — he got on with absolutely everyone," said Theogene Rudasingwa, a senior RNC official.

He got on with Rwandan civilians and foreign diplomats alike.

Friends and colleagues remember Karegeya for his supply of jokes, many of them full of sexual innuendo.

"He was extremely funny," said Mr Rudasingwa.

But he was also accused of having had a hand in the assassinations of Rwandan opposition figures.

Detractors question his sincerity in criticising the Rwandan authorities, pointing out that he only spoke out against alleged abuses by Kigali after he fell out of favour.

The fancy cars his family drove were regularly the talk of Kigali.

A Western diplomat, struck by the size of the giant television in Karegeya's living room once remarked: "I'd rather be a public servant in Rwanda than in my country...."

But in the months prior to his death he had become increasingly nervous about his security.

Those close to him said he must have had no reason to mistrust the person he met at the hotel where he died.

Karegeya had three children, a daughter who lives in Canada and two sons who live with his widow in the US.

Additional report by AFP

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How the former Rwandan spymaster was assassinated - East Africa News - thecitizen.co.tz
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/How-the-former-Rwandan-spymaster-was-assassinated-/-/1840360/2137070/-/pxhvwu/-/index.html