The ex-MP describes as ‘difficult’ the character of his cousin whom he raised.
Sankara claimed to be the mastermind of last month’s armed attack on residents of Nyaruguru, leaving two civilians dead, three injured and shops looted. Shortly after the attack, Sankara went on international radio, BBC, claiming to be behind the attacks.
{{Who is Sankara
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Rangira happens to be the guardian of Sankara originating from District Nyanza in Southern Province.
“I raised Sankara shortly after the death of his parents. His father is my father’syoung brother. His parents were killed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Sankara survived with his little sister where they lived in Gacu, currently Nyanza District. I picked both of them from an orphanage and took care of them. But they had a difficult character. At that time, Sankara was just beginning high school. He enrolled at Butare Group School from where he was chased. He then joined Rwamagana Secondary School. He is someone who has been difficult since his childhood,” Rangira explains.
In the late nineties, Sankara enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Rwanda in Butare. Here he started playing divisive politics as he campaigned for students’ guild leadership. The university authorities suspended him indefinitely.
He lodged a complaint with different authorities including the Office of the Ombudsman, the Rwandan Human Rights Commission, without success as the university firmly refused his readmission. He gave up. He then registered at ULK (Kigali Independent University).
After graduation in 2006, Callixte joined the media where he slandered and abused Rwanda’s leadership, using a paper called ‘Umulinzi’. It was then that law enforcers started pursuing him.
Shortly after, he self-exiled to Nairobi, Kenya, where he contacted and joined Rangira who was at the time retired in Madagascar. On arrival in Madagascar, Rangira advised and sent him back to Rwanda. He was questioned by the police about his writings in the paper ‘Umulinzi’, but was not arrested.
In 2013, using his position as a cashier, Sankara fleeced Tam Tam Restaurant (owned by Habimana Kizito) of Rwf 3 million. He used the money to escape to South Africa.
Since then, Rangira says he had not heard from his cousin until when he heard that he had joined the opposition outfit.
The Rwandan National Police, through its spokesman Theos Badege, told IGIHE that Callixte Sankara is wanted over many criminal cases.
“The name Sankara Callixte is quite common in many criminal cases. The fact that he claimed this attack made it easier for the work of justice. It will also facilitate international cooperation in the extradition of criminals. It is the responsibility of any country hosting a criminal to disassociate itself from him and extradite him to Rwanda,” said Police Commissioner Théos Badege who reassured citizens saying that “Sankara’s words should not scare anyone”.
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