Officially, Monique Mujawamariya (right) was in Rwanda to attend wedding of her son William. But her trip involved more than meets the eye
Last week, Google News was trending with reports about a South Africa-based Rwandan woman Monique Mujawamariya who travelled seven countries supposedly to mobilise resources for terror cell of the Rwanda National Congress (RNC). Until these reports emerged, Mujawamariya was unknown in Rwanda. So who is she?
Publicly, Monique Mujawamariya is known as “Dr Monique Mujawamariya”, the founder of MAFUBO International which says on its website that it campaigns for women rights. It was founded in 2009 in Montreal, Canada, and boasts of national chapters in different countries.
MAFUBO International says it also operates in Rwanda and supports vulnerable women in Rwanda, but there is no trace of its activities in the country. Mujawamariya is based in Cape Town, South Africa, where she has been living for several years.
In a Facebook statement issued this past weekend, Mujawamariya affirmed in French: “I am not involved in politics”. On face value, to ordinary readers, Mujawamariya’s statement paints her as an innocent human rights activist being unfairly targeted. But the graphic details of her trips in August and early September to this region, Lebanon and France tell of a ferocious operative.
For previous details, read the News of Rwanda story: http://www.newsofrwanda.com/featured1/24890/sa-based-opposition-figure-recruiting-students-back-home-in-rwanda/. The original story was published by a blog.
Over the past days, News of Rwanda has been piecing together facts about Monique Mujawamariya. We are releasing never-before-published facts based on testimony of various people who know her from as far back as 1992. At the time, she was a vocal critic of former President Juvenal Habyarimana.
“ikirumirahabiri”
Around 1993, President Habyarimana used one of his most trusted agents Pascal Simbikangwa to convince Mujawamariya to give his government some breathing space. According to people privy to repeated outbursts of anger at Mujawamariya by former premier Faustin Twagiramungu, he considered her a “sell out”. Habyarimana is said to have offered her money and access to the highest echelons of Rwanda’s political elite.
Using the connections, Mujawamariya amassed wealth in a very short time. According her former colleagues at the Rwanda National Congress, an opposition outfit, Mujawamariya currently owns a string of properties in Canada which she acquired using the money she was able to transfer from Rwanda when the country descended into the darkest era of existence in 1994.
For Simbikangwa who lured her into Habyarimana’s grip, he was sentenced by French court in March this year to 25 years in a trial genocide survivors have described as a “show trial”.
When the ex-government eventually lost power in July 1994, Mujawamariya came running for “payment”, telling then prime minister Faustin Twagiramungu that it was time to reward her because she had also fought Habyarimana. According to people who attended her meetings with Twagiramungu, Mujawamariya demanded to be appointed a cabinet minister.
The controversial ex-premier angrily brushed her off as “ikirumirahabiri” or literary meaning double agent. Twagiramungu, who had faced the brunt of Habyarimana’s abuses and harassment vowed never to let her serve in any capacity in his government.
First forward to the trial of Simbikangwa in France, Mujawamariya refused to testify in the case despite being the source of information for Human Rights Watch on Rwanda for much of the early 1990s. For example, in the 1993 annual report for Human Rights Watch, Mujawamariya is cited as accusing Simbikangwa of threatening to kill her.
However, Mujawamariya declined to testify in the genocide case against Simbikangwa because it was apparently serving the agenda of the current government of Rwanda. In other words, Mujawamariya refused to testify because that would be tantamount to backing the Rwandan government which she detests.
In comes Patrick Karegeya
Mujawamariya is also a partner of “Leading Women of Africa”, a women development finance group. She was facilitated to join the group by Ms Bukie Mzamo-Mdlalo, who is among the executives at “Eyomama Security Consulting”, a security consulting firm. Mujawamariya was introduced to Mzamo-Mdlalo by Patrick Karegeya, a founding member of RNC. Karegeya was a paid consultant of Eyomama, often put on tender documents of the company whenever it applied for business.
Kagegeya was until he was found dead in Johannesburg hotel room in January this year, a key brain for RNC. Various accounts point to bitter rivalry between him and Kayumba Nyamwasa. Much of the infighting was borne from either side’s desire to have his camp in control of RNC.
Back at MAFUBO International, Mujawamariya founded the group with Leslie Haskell, currently research fellow at Human Rights Watch. That was in 2009. And the following year, the billionaire financier George Soros awarded $100 million to Human Rights Watch supposedly to “enable the group to massively expand its operations around the world”.
People in the know of how MAFUBO International operates, say it is a front organization that gives Mujawamariya access to western government. She then uses that access to conduct her dark self.
For example, in the original story which unearthed her, it is reported that she travelled to Uganda with an official brief of attending a conference of NGOs – which she did. However, she used the opportunity to meet with a senior FDLR commander for whom she had delivered an envelope.
While in Kampala, Mujawamariya also met with some members of the RNC. It is reported that Mujawamariya booked a hotel room at Hotel Africana, a four-star facility, but did not sleep in the room for all the three days of her stay. Instead, she always left in the company of different males, who are clandestine members of RNC.