{"id":56132,"date":"2025-11-01T17:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T17:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/the-day-karekezi-slapped-former-president-mbonyumutwa\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T09:50:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T09:50:38","slug":"the-day-karekezi-slapped-former-president-mbonyumutwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/the-day-karekezi-slapped-former-president-mbonyumutwa\/","title":{"rendered":"The day Karekezi slapped former President Mbonyumutwa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mbonyumutwa served as President of Rwanda from January 28, 1961, to October 26, 1961.<\/p>\n

The slap became a significant event in Rwanda’s history due to its symbolic meaning. During that time, there was a tense political atmosphere, with Belgium using Hutu political parties to push for the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic.<\/p>\n

Many Rwandans could not understand the idea of a republic and the possibility of forgetting the monarchy that had ruled for so long.<\/p>\n

At that time, the political parties, especially MDR-Parmehutu, which advocated for the republic, and UNAR, which supported the monarchy, were at odds.<\/p>\n

Mbonyumutwa was aligned with the MDR-Parmehutu party, serving as Sub-Chief in Ndiza (Gitarama). He was one of the leading politicians encouraging the population to reject the monarchy and fight for the establishment of a republic.<\/p>\n

On November 1, 1959, Mbonyumutwa attended a mass in Byimana. After the mass, he went to visit Father Marara, who lived at the parish. On his way back, he met Karekezi Pascal and other young people.<\/p>\n

Karekezi and the other two youths were reportedly upset by the notion of the monarchy being abolished and the words Mbonyumutwa\u2019s alignment with ideologies to kill the Tutsis.<\/p>\n

Karekezi once told IGIHE that he and his colleagues decided to slap Mbonyumutwa to stop his public promotion of the republic and his divisive rhetoric.<\/p>\n

He said, “He supported the idea of killing people. Instead of promoting the culture of the country, he took the Belgian model to create a republic, and you have seen what the republic led to.”<\/p>\n

Karekezi mentioned that he and Mbonyumutwa had known each other previously, as Mbonyumutwa was from a neighborhood called Mwendo.<\/p>\n

Due to the political rivalry between Parmehutu and UNAR (the monarchy-supporting party), some believed Karekezi and his colleagues were sent by UNAR to slap Mbonyumutwa. However, Karekezi denied this claim.<\/p>\n

He said, “How could UNAR send us? […] We were at home when he came from his place to promote the Parmehutu agenda, and we knew that it was all about killing people.”<\/p>\n

Karekezi described how they ambushed Mbonyumutwa as he was on his way home and slapped him. But Mbonyumutwa fought back.<\/p>\n

He explained, “We slapped him as he was heading to a place where he would become a Sous-Chef. He came from Mwendo… He fought back because he was not tied up.”<\/p>\n

“He fought back and left. He didn\u2019t go to court, and no one came for revenge. He later became a sous chef. They continued to stir division and war, until they began destroying everything.”<\/p>\n

After the incident, rumors spread that Mbonyumutwa had been killed by Tutsi youth sent by UNAR. Some Tutsis were attacked, their homes burned, and many were killed while others fled.<\/p>\n

Mbonyumutwa was elected president by leaders from the Hutu political parties in a meeting held in Gitarama, where it was confirmed that the monarchy was officially abolished. Mbonyumutwa was elected to lead the newly established republic.<\/p>\n

\"Mbonyumutwa<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On November 1, 1959, Mbonyumutwa Dominiko, who later became Rwanda’s first President, was slapped by an elderly man, Karekezi Pascal, from Byimana Sector in Ruhango District.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000097069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72,75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured-news-home","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000097069,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton111893-97348.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton111893-97348.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton111893-97348.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton111893-97348.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton111893-97348.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton111893-97348.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000097069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56132"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56132"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}