Retired Lt. Colonel Rose Kabuye has been fired from her Chief of State Protocol position by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, sources in Rwanda tell AfroAmerica Network. She was replaced by  Kalisa Tunga.

    Rose Kabuye was born in Muvumba, Rwanda in 1961.  While serving as  Chief State Protocol she was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany for her alleged involvement in the shooting down the plane and the assassination of the late Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira.  The arrest followed the indictment by the French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere.

    Her alleged involvement  followed her participation in the guerrilla movement , the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which she joined in late 1980s in Uganda. She rose in ranks and was a Major when the RPF took over power in Rwanda in 1994. After the RPF victory, she was appointed mayor of the capital Kigali and later served as a member of parliament, before being appointed Chief of State Protocol.

   

    She was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany on November 9, 2008 after previous warnings from the German authorities while on official visits. She was transferred to France where she was detained under house arrest, and allowed to visit her family in Rwanda twice, before she was finally released temporarily pending further investigations. The arrest set off a series of protests against both German and French Governments: the Rwandan government expelled the German Ambassador; the French did not have diplomatic relations with Rwanda. After her release both France and Germany normalized relations with Rwanda.

However, according to sources in Rwanda, with her release the relationship with Paul Kagame became tense, after General Paul Kagame learned of  the statements she made in front of the panel judges.

   

    The content of the judicial investigation appears to have been leaked to the Rwandan Government by some French officials. Her husband, Major David Kabuye appeared to be close to General Kayumba Nyamwasa, the Rwandan General exiled in South Africa and who escaped an assassination attempt allegedly by the Rwandan intelligence services.

Her demise was a matter of time.

©AfroAmerica Network, 2010