Dr. David Himbara, a Former economic aid to President Paul Kagame was exposed by a fellow witness who said in his testimony that Dr. Himbara, who works as a “human rights advocate and good governance consultant”, personally, hired a top-tier DC lobbying firm in August 2014 to tarnish Rwanda’s image as well as its governance, IGIHE exclusively reports
The witness said Dr Himbara paid them $70,000 in the first quarter of this year, and a total of $190,000 since the contract started.
Willis Shalita told the U.S. House of Representative during a hearing on Development in Rwanda that a lot of money is being spent to circulate disinformation about Rwanda to decision makers and opinion-makers in the United States of America.
Willis Shalita is an American and proud Rwandan who lived in Exile in Uganda and later became a U. S citizen.
Willis Shalita works as a writer, through a weekly blog on social and political developments in America and Africa, with a particular focus on Rwanda.
Willis Shalita believes that this malicious political campaign weakens the strong bilateral relationship between Rwanda and America, which would ironically make the U.S. less effective as a trusted partner accompanying Rwanda towards its highest goals.
“People have a right to do that, provided they follow the rules. But I for one am curious to know who is bankrolling it. How else can the credibility of any claims that emerge from this shadowy network be assessed?” He asked
Earlier this Week a network of senior members of the Rwandan National Congress (RNC), whose leaders openly state their commitment to the violent overthrow of the Rwandan government and the assassination of its president and have even resorted to collaborating with the FDLR, a terrorist organization made up of the remnants of the groups responsible for the Genocide, circulated information about the organized debate with the aim of attacking Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.
The event took place on 20th May 2015, and among people who gave their testimony include Dr David Himbara, a former top economic aide to Kagame, Robert Higiro, a former Rwandan army major who fled the country; Robert Jackson, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs; Sarah Margon, Washington Director for Human Rights Watch; Steven Feldstein, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; and Willis Shalita, a photojournalist and blogger.
On the other side of the campaign, the RNC and affiliates have launched a website whose role is to attack Rwanda’s Government.
The website was registered only about a week ago, on May 13, 2015 before the organized debate on Rwanda to take place.
Willis asked “How is it that some of the very people who once proudly contributed to Rwanda’s success, now calmly assert that stats are fake, foreign eyewitnesses are dupes, and Rwanda is some kind of tropical North Korea? And why does anyone believe them, when the mountain of contrary evidence is so high? The answer is simpler than I thought: politics and money.”
READ Willis Testimony Here
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