fitri-handayani
Tom Byabagamba, the retired colonel who once commanded Rwanda's presidential guard and served as a personal bodyguard to President Paul Kagame, has died in prison, according to the BBC. He was 59 and had been behind bars for roughly twelve years at the time of his death.
Byabagamba was taken into custody in 2014 alongside his brother-in-law, Frank Rusagara, a retired brigadier-general who had previously held the post of secretary-general at the defence ministry. The two men were accused of "spreading rumours" and of "tarnishing the image of the country and government" — charges that drew immediate scrutiny from international human rights organisations.
Throughout his trial, the former guard commander insisted he was innocent, maintaining that the accusations against him had been invented. His protests did not sway the military court that heard his case. In 2016, the tribunal sentenced him to 21 years in prison, a term that was later trimmed to 15 years by an appeals court. Rusagara received a 20-year sentence of his own.
Human rights groups have long pointed to the pair's prosecutions as emblematic of what they describe as a broader crackdown under Kagame's government. Organisations including Human Rights Watch have repeatedly alleged that authorities in Kigali curtail political opposition and work to silence critics both inside Rwanda and overseas.
News of Byabagamba's death reached his family without any official explanation. His brother, David Himbara, told the BBC's Great Lakes service that relatives still do not know what killed him, noting that no one had been permitted to visit him during his entire time in detention.
His death follows that of his co-accused brother-in-law. Rusagara died in prison in March last year, an event Human Rights Watch characterised as the "lonely death of a general". According to the group, Rusagara's family had not heard his voice in the decade since 2014, shortly before he was arrested. Prison authorities told relatives that the retired general had been suffering from cancer before he died.
The convictions of both men rested on proceedings that HRW has described as fundamentally flawed, with serious allegations of torture and witness tampering hanging over the trial. The campaign group Freedom Now separately condemned the detentions as arbitrary and said they breached international law.
Byabagamba's arrest in 2014 marked a striking fall for an officer once entrusted with protecting Rwanda's most powerful figure. As head of the presidential guard and later as part of Kagame's close protection detail, he occupied one of the most sensitive positions in the country's security apparatus before his relationship with the establishment turned hostile.
Advocates for the two men had spent years pressing for their release, arguing that the charges stemmed from their perceived dissent rather than any genuine criminal conduct. Neither appeal appeared to gain traction with Rwandan courts or officials.
With Byabagamba's passing, questions about the circumstances of his final years remain unanswered. His family says it was never given access to him, leaving them to learn of his condition only after his death.
He is survived by his wife and two sons, who now join Rusagara's relatives in seeking answers about how two of the country's once-prominent military figures came to die in state custody more than a decade after their arrests.
Rights groups say the deaths underscore the risks faced by former insiders who fall out with the government in Kigali, and they continue to call for greater transparency from Rwandan authorities regarding treatment of political prisoners.
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