According to reports from the US state of Maine, Mukarurangwa arrived in the country in March 2018 then proceeded to ask for asylum, claiming she was “fleeing persecution in Rwanda”. She even alleged that she had “spent two weeks in jail because of her ties with Rwigara.”
According to a US website, Press Herald, Mukarurangwa said she had been to jail because she supported Diane Rwigara, “a human right activist who tried to run for president in Rwanda.”
But a simple fact check immediately shows problems with this story. First of all, they do not state anywhere the fact that the “campaign” of Rwigara was beset by problems of fraud and forgery, and as such was forestalled by legal issues the Rwigaras brought upon themselves.
Secondly, Claudine Mukarurangwa was never a supporter of Diane Rwigara. She in fact was a supporter of President Kagame and RPF.
We have screenshots from her Facebook page, Da Colo MC, that show she and her family are staunch supporters of the president, and RPF. There are several pictures on her Facebook page of RPF 2017 campaign posters, displayed prominently.
There are pictures of Mukarurangwa with her two sons, Kevin Nshuti and Kelly Shima, one of them in the white cap of RPF with its red, white and sky blue flag, very visible. There are pictures of the young men dressed in t-shirts of the RPF, the proud mother between them.
There also are pictures of the young men wearing military attire, consistent with what pre-university young people do when they go to Ingando solidarity camps, an RPF-introduced program to teach kids patriotism.
On the other hand, according to our sources in Kigali this lady was never seen anywhere within the Rwigara camp. Not when she made an announcement in 2017 that she intended to campaign, and not even when Diane was standing trial on forgery charges.
Photographs from Rwigara’s events show no signs of Claudine Mukarurangwa anywhere. “If this lady sought asylum anywhere on the pretense that she is an ally of Rwigara, that’s the biggest joke so far,” said a gentleman in Kigali that’s known her for a long time.
“She is RPF throughout; ever since RPF stopped the Genocide and formed a new government!” said our source who requested anonymity.
An investigation to verify whether she in fact the lady had been to jail – allegedly for supporting Rwigara – turned up nothing.
There are no news reports of any Claudine Mukarurangwa going to prison for supporting Rwigara, or for any other reason. “If Claudine is in the US claiming she went to prison so as to get asylum, that’s another lie,” said our source.
After nine months however, despite the false information she gave, Mukarurangwa was granted asylum and she is now living in Maine. The website Press Herald reports that she is beginning a new life, and waiting for her work papers to be processed.
Those that know her best say she in fact escaped Rwanda for a different reason other than the (harmful) lies against Rwanda she has been telling. “Claudine left Rwanda because she was totally broke!” said a woman associate of hers in Kiyovu.
“Claudine was someone that loved partying and men, living large, and working very little!” said the former business partner of Mukarurangwa.
Inquiries confirm indeed that Mukarurangwa was someone that liked to spend big all night “then spend half the day sleeping”, and that on weekends it would be worse – it would be partying all night and waking up after lunch hours.
“When you add in travel to expensive places, shopping and so on in addition to the partying lifestyle, yet you aren’t earning much, soon you will be broke. No matter how much you have,” our source remarked.
An investigation revealed that Mukarurangwa’s first husband, Vianney Nyamutera, divorced her before 2006 because, according to those who know them, “he found it impossible to live with her.”
It was around that time that Mukarurangwa went to visit a friend of hers – whose name we shall only disclose as Parfine – who had gotten a European husband (“through a similar partying lifestyle”). Parfine lived with her husband in Switzerland and that’s where Claudine went to visit her.
It was while in Switzerland, according to our sources, that Parfine “connected” Claudine to a certain Mr. Andrew Nightingale, an Englishman in his seventies. They were soon “regularly communicating”.
Around 2010, Nightingale came to Kigali, and they married that year.
Nightingale according to records bought two houses in Kigali – a property in Kiyovu valued at over Frw 250 million, and another in Gacuriro, valued at over Frw 100 million. “Nightingale also showered Claudine with cash!” say our sources. After only a year together, in 2011, Andrew Nightingale passed away – on a morning he was supposed to travel to Europe.
An autopsy said he died of a heart attack.
In any case, he left the two houses and unspecified amounts of money to his wife. “Soon the lady was partying like there was no tomorrow, enjoying herself, most times in the company of “hunky-looking” young men.
“You can see that doing that kind of thing for seven years, but with no clear business anyone will go bankrupt,” said a woman they used to spend evenings together, sometimes spending as much as a million francs in one night.
She says no one in Rwanda has ever threatened Mukarurangwa with arrest, “not a single day”.
If she left Rwanda it was because she had no money any more, said this friend who says she has “known Claudine for half a decade”.
“Claudine sold the houses, she spent all the money, and she had even sold her cars! It would have been too shameful to be without money, that is the only possible reason she left!”
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