The Disappearance of Patrick Murara and the Courage to Reject Kagamistan

The news broke this weekend that Patrick Murara — a young Rwandan who has openly challenged the lies of “Kagamistan” and exposed how the RPF has worked tirelessly to Kagamenize Rwanda — reportedly went missing. Yet anyone familiar with Rwanda’s political culture, shaped by the ideological sermons of figures like General James Kabarebe, would recognize Murara’s fate as a chilling but predictable consequence of the state’s zero-tolerance approach to dissent.

Patrick Murara is missing. A bright young Rwandan, reportedly outspoken and unafraid to question Paul Kagame's authority has vanished — and in Rwanda’s current climate, that is rarely a coincidence.

A review of Kabarebe’s speeches, compiled and translated by W. J. Rugamba and publicly available on the Online Archive for Historical Documentation (James Kabarebe’s Selected Public Speeches, 2019), shows the ideological foundation of Rwanda’s authoritarian regime. In his 2019 address to the Association of Student Survivors of the Genocide (AERG), Kabarebe laid out a worldview that not only criminalizes dissent but frames it as an existential threat to the state.

Kabarebe’s rhetoric paints even the smallest ideological deviation as intolerable, equating independent thought with subversion. He describes ideology itself as an inherently destructive force, turning it into a catch-all term for any form of opposition, critical thinking, or alternative vision.

James Kabarebe’s Translated Public Speeches — free copies available on the Online Archive for Historical Documentation.

This framing has grave implications. It creates a climate where young people like Murara, who question or challenge the state’s narrative, are viewed as internal enemies. Kabarebe even characterizes dissenters as dangerous remnants who must be eliminated with overwhelming force, leaving no room for dialogue or rehabilitation.

These words are not just rhetoric — they shape policy. The government has cultivated a culture of fear and suspicion, where those who dare to think differently often face harassment, imprisonment, or forced disappearance. Murara’s case fits this pattern, reflecting the ideological paranoia that has come to define Rwanda’s governance.

The responsibility, however, does not stop with Kabarebe. His worldview mirrors the broader political culture of President Paul Kagame’s regime, which has ruled Rwanda since 1994. While Kagame’s government is praised for rebuilding Rwanda’s economy and maintaining stability, it does so at a profound cost — crushing dissent, muzzling the press, banning opposition parties, and using national security as a justification for human rights abuses.

Kabarebe dismisses internationally recognized principles like democracy and human rights as foreign imports designed to undermine the nation. This ideological framework leaves no space for civic engagement, pluralism, or healthy debate. In practice, it turns young, critical minds like Murara into targets instead of valued citizens.

Murara’s disappearance is especially tragic because he represents the very generation that Rwanda claims as the torchbearers of its future. The state exhorts its youth to be vigilant and committed to the nation’s survival, but its definition of vigilance leaves no room for independent thought, moral courage, or alternative visions. Those who deviate are branded enemies of the state.

Rwanda faces a profound contradiction at the heart of its post-genocide reconstruction. A nation cannot build a just and united future by silencing and disappearing its own citizens. The ideology promoted by Kabarebe and embodied in Kagame’s regime has turned fear into policy and paranoia into principle.

For Rwanda to truly heal from its past, it must move beyond the politics of fear and control, stop equating opposition with treason, and recognize dissent as an essential ingredient of democracy. In a country where the price of ideology is so high, the real danger may not lie with those who dare to reject it, but with those who cling to it so tightly that they forget what unity was meant to protect.