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Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad
A powerful investigation into a grisly political murder and the authoritarian regime behind Do Not Disturb upends the narrative that Rwanda sold the world after one of the deadliest genocides of the twentieth century.
We think we know the story of Africa’s Great Lakes region. Following the Rwandan genocide, an idealistic group of young rebels overthrew the brutal regime in Kigali, ushering in an era of peace and stability that made Rwanda the donor darling of the West, winning comparisons with Switzerland and Singapore. But the truth was considerably more sinister.
Vividly sourcing her story with direct testimony from key participants, Wrong uses the story of the murder of Patrick Karegeya, once Rwanda’s head of external intelligence and a quicksilver operator of supple charm, to paint the portrait of a modern African dictatorship created in the chilling likeness of Paul Kagame, the president who sanctioned his former friend’s assassination.
We think we know the story of Africa’s Great Lakes region. Following the Rwandan genocide, an idealistic group of young rebels overthrew the brutal regime in Kigali, ushering in an era of peace and stability that made Rwanda the donor darling of the West, winning comparisons with Switzerland and Singapore. But the truth was considerably more sinister.
Vividly sourcing her story with direct testimony from key participants, Wrong uses the story of the murder of Patrick Karegeya, once Rwanda’s head of external intelligence and a quicksilver operator of supple charm, to paint the portrait of a modern African dictatorship created in the chilling likeness of Paul Kagame, the president who sanctioned his former friend’s assassination.
512 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2021
282 people are currently reading
5156 people want to read
About the author
Michela Wrong
10 books245 followersHalf-Italian, half-British, Michela Wrong was born in 1961. She grew up in London and took a degree in Philosophy and Social Sciences at Jesus College, Cambridge and a diploma in journalism at Cardiff.
She joined Reuters news agency in the early 1980s and was posted as a foreign correspondent to Italy, France and Ivory Coast. She became a freelance journalist in 1994, when she moved to then-Zaire and found herself covering both the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda and the final days of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko for the BBC and Reuters. She later moved to Kenya, where she spent four years covering east, west and central Africa for the Financial Times newspaper.
In 2000 she published her first book, "In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz", the story of Mobutu's rise and fall, which won a PEN prize for non-fiction. Her second book, "I didn't do it for you", which focused on the little-written-about Red Sea nation of Eritrea, came out in 2005 and was hailed as a "gripping political thriller" by Monica Ali.
Her third book, published in February 2009, was "It's Our Turn to Eat", which tracks the story of Kenyan corruption whistleblower John Githongo, who sought refuge in her London flat. Boycotted by Nairobi bookshops terrified of being sued, it has become an underground bestseller in Kenya, distributed by local churches, radio stations and non-governmental groups and debated in town hall meetings. Described as reading "like a cross between Le Carre and Solzhenitsyn", it has triggered expressions of interest from US and South African film directors. It was named as one of the Economist's "best books of 2009" and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.
Michela Wrong's non-fiction books on contemporary Africa aim to be accessible to both members of the general public and experts in the field. They have become a must-read for diplomats, aid officials, journalists and strategists based on the continent and regularly feature on the "required reading" lists of International Relations and African Studies courses at university. She was awarded the 2010 James Cameron prize for journalism "that combined moral vision and professional integrity
She currently lives in London and is regularly interviewed by the BBC, Al Jazeera and Reuters on her areas of expertise. She has published opinion pieces and book reviews in the Observer, Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman, Spectator, Standpoint and Foreign Policy magazine, and travel pieces for Traveler Conde Nast. She speaks fluent Italian and French.
In 2014 she was appointed literary director of the Miles Morland Foundation, which funds a range of African literary festivals and a scholarship scheme for African writers. She is a trustee of the Africa Research Institute and an advisor to the Centre for Global Development.
She joined Reuters news agency in the early 1980s and was posted as a foreign correspondent to Italy, France and Ivory Coast. She became a freelance journalist in 1994, when she moved to then-Zaire and found herself covering both the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda and the final days of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko for the BBC and Reuters. She later moved to Kenya, where she spent four years covering east, west and central Africa for the Financial Times newspaper.
In 2000 she published her first book, "In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz", the story of Mobutu's rise and fall, which won a PEN prize for non-fiction. Her second book, "I didn't do it for you", which focused on the little-written-about Red Sea nation of Eritrea, came out in 2005 and was hailed as a "gripping political thriller" by Monica Ali.
Her third book, published in February 2009, was "It's Our Turn to Eat", which tracks the story of Kenyan corruption whistleblower John Githongo, who sought refuge in her London flat. Boycotted by Nairobi bookshops terrified of being sued, it has become an underground bestseller in Kenya, distributed by local churches, radio stations and non-governmental groups and debated in town hall meetings. Described as reading "like a cross between Le Carre and Solzhenitsyn", it has triggered expressions of interest from US and South African film directors. It was named as one of the Economist's "best books of 2009" and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.
Michela Wrong's non-fiction books on contemporary Africa aim to be accessible to both members of the general public and experts in the field. They have become a must-read for diplomats, aid officials, journalists and strategists based on the continent and regularly feature on the "required reading" lists of International Relations and African Studies courses at university. She was awarded the 2010 James Cameron prize for journalism "that combined moral vision and professional integrity
She currently lives in London and is regularly interviewed by the BBC, Al Jazeera and Reuters on her areas of expertise. She has published opinion pieces and book reviews in the Observer, Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman, Spectator, Standpoint and Foreign Policy magazine, and travel pieces for Traveler Conde Nast. She speaks fluent Italian and French.
In 2014 she was appointed literary director of the Miles Morland Foundation, which funds a range of African literary festivals and a scholarship scheme for African writers. She is a trustee of the Africa Research Institute and an advisor to the Centre for Global Development.
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July 7, 2021
In May 2019, my wife and I spent three days in Rwanda’s charming capital city, Kigali, on a side trip from a visit to Kenya. We were enchanted by the rolling hills and by the spotless, flower-lined streets and sidewalks that conjured up memories of Singapore. At the Kigali Genocide Memorial, we walked slowly in shocked silence through the garden planted over the bodies of 250,000 victims of the 1994 massacre. In writing about the visit to friends at home, I rhapsodized about Rwanda’s explosive economic growth rate—the highest in Africa and nearly equal to China’s—and likened President Paul Kagame to a “benevolent dictator.” In fact, the impression I gained in Kigali represented the consensus Western view of Rwanda.
I got it all wrong
Sadly, I got it all wrong. And so has a generation of diplomats, international bureaucrats, aid officials, and philanthropists who have poured billions into the regime of that “benevolent dictator.”
Because President Paul Kagame is no philosopher king. The economic statistics are inflated. And those 250,000 bodies are all Tutsis like the President and nearly everyone else in his regime. They do not include any of the hundreds of thousands of Hutus that Kagame’s army murdered in revenge when they liberated the country from the génocidaires. It all comes to light in veteran foreign correspondent Michela Wrong’s shocking exposé, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad.
A tale of three men, revolutionaries all
Do Not Disturb is framed as an inquiry into the murder of a high-level refugee from Rwanda in a Johannesburg hotel room in 2013. The book starts with a detailed account of the murder—an assassination, really—and closes with news of the much-delayed inquest in South Africa more than five years later. In between these bookends, Wrong relates the complex, three-decade history of the region that led up to the genocide. She shows how the story involves not just tiny Rwanda and its 12 million people but all the nearby nations as well, including Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, and what is today called the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Together, the five countries house a population approaching that of the United States.
But, properly speaking, Do Not Disturb is a story of three men who were brothers-in-arms in the Uganda-based force that overthrew the génocidaire regime in Kigali. Paul Kagame (1957-), President of Rwanda since 2000. Patrick Karegewa (1960-2013), Rwanda’s long-time chief of intelligence and Kagame’s aide-turned-victim. And Fred Rwigyema (1957-90), the charismatic and much-loved leader of the revolutionary army who might well have led Rwanda had he survived the fighting.
Learning the rules for revolution in Uganda
Kagame, Karegewa, and Rwingyema were all members of the Tutsi ethnic community. Like so many others, they lived not in Rwanda but in neighboring Uganda. Karegewa even considered himself Ugandan, as his family had lived in the country for generations. As young men, they were all engaged in the brutal revolutionary movement that overthrew, first, the homicidal buffoon Idi Amin (1925-2003), and then his equally tyrannical successor, Milton Obote (1925-2005). The three all played roles in installing as Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni in 1986, who remains in office to this day. Later, they came together again to mount an invasion of Rwanda, to overthrow the Hutu regime led by Juvénal Habiyarimana (1937-94). It was Habiyarimana whose death in a plane crash is generally credited with triggering the genocide.
A complex tale boiled down to essentials
As Michela Wrong tells it, this story is complex, full of twists, turns, and backtracks. But it’s essentially a simple tale. The three stars of the story—Kagame, Karegewa, and Rwingyema—collaborated uneasily in a revolutionary alliance for several years in Uganda before the 1990 invasion of their homeland.
The inspirational leader: Fred Rwingyema
The popular and compassionate Fred Rwingyema stood head and shoulders above the others. He was widely regarded as the man to replace Habiyarimana at the helm of Rwanda’s government once the Hutu regime fell.
The cheerful spy: Patrick Karegewa
Patrick Karegewa, who was close to the Ugandan revolutionary leader they all had followed, rose quickly in the independence movement, playing a leading role in securing resources from neighboring governments. With a cheerful, outgoing personality, Karegewa was, like Ryingyema, popular among the troops. He was the movement’s chief diplomat.
The control freak: President Paul Kagame
By contrast, Paul Kagame was unpopular and even despised by many who served with him. He was a dour and vindictive man known by his nickname “Pilato” (Pontius Pilate) for his demonstrated willingness to condemn colleagues to death for minor infractions. Wrong characterizes him as “the ultimate control freak.” Yet after Rwingyema died on the second day of the invasion of Rwanda in 1990, it was Kagame who took the helm of the movement and then the nation. Karegewa was among his aides as chief of external intelligence.
Controversy surrounds Fred Ryingyema’s death. He may have been felled by a stray bullet in battle with French soldiers who supported the Hutu regime—or at the hands of a jealous colleague in the revolutionary army. But there is no longer any mystery about Patrick Karegewa’s death. He was murdered by thugs in South Africa hired by Paul Kagame. He was one of many high-level Rwandan refugees and exiles killed for their refusal to remain complicit in the President’s crimes. And, as MIchela Wrong reveals about bringing this truth to light, “I’ve written books before that annoyed ruling regimes, but have never felt quite so personally at risk.”
Where is Rwanda?
Africa is vast. It’s nearly three times the size of the United States and houses a population topping one billion. So, tiny, landlocked Rwanda is easy to overlook on a map. You might imagine it as a dependency of its massive neighbor to the west, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with its population of 92 million. Yet, as Michela Wrong shows, in some ways the opposite is the case. For many years, in fact, Rwanda has been the dominant force in much of the eastern DRC. And the Kagame regime was instrumental in deposing the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-97), the DRC’s tyrannical, long-serving president. Rwanda’s population of just 12 million and its President Paul Kagame exert influence far out of proportion to their number.
So, why does Rwanda remain the poster child of African progress?
Why, then, if all this is true—and I am convinced it is, after independently checking parts of this report—does the international community continue to shovel resources into Rwanda? (Just for the record, here’s Michela Wrong noting one source of confirmation: “Google ‘YouTube,’ ‘Assassination,’ ‘General,’ and ‘Kayumba,’ and you can listen to Kagame’s henchmen at their sinister work, with subtitles in English and French helpfully provided.”) The author’s explanation emerges from her narrative. There seem to be four reasons:
1. Public relations
The public relations campaign President Paul Kagame’s minions have had underway since the beginning is singularly effective. It takes a lot of digging to turn up the truth about conditions in Rwanda and the history of the men at the country’s helm. And, as Wrong notes, “the storyteller’s need to identify Good Guys and Bad Guys, culprit and victims, makes fools of us all.”
2. Economics
In some cases, particularly those involving other African regimes, lucrative trade relations and other benefits have helped suppress any tendencies to express displeasure with the Kagame government.
3. A powerful army
The fact that Rwanda has, as Wrong notes, the most powerful army in Africa plays a role, too. Its frequent contributions to international peacekeeping forces make it possible for other nations to avoid participating in dangerous missions organized by the Organisation of African Unity or the UN.
4. Realpolitik
But, in the final analysis, realpolitik reigns here. Diplomats, aid officials, and philanthropists ignore the “human rights violations”—in reality, government-sanctioned murder—because they have higher priorities. Kagame paints a pretty picture of “progress” that looks good in their reports, and the doctored statistics are impressive. But the reality that emerges from Wrong’s account is that the Tutsi forces under President Paul Kagame’s leadership have murdered nearly as many people as perished in the genocide. The examples she cites from independent studies add up to about 700,000 dead. Some 800,000 to one million people died in the genocide.
As Wrong concludes, “Having broadly decided at one point that Kagame and the RPF were ‘the Good Guys’ in Rwanda, ‘Good Guys’ who had stopped what was self-evidently ‘A Very Bad Thing,’ many an academic, diplomat, development official, and businessman would cling with a sloth’s viselike grip to that view, pretty much irrespective of events on the ground or any suggestion that the RPF had, in fact, played a part in bringing that Very Bad Thing about.”
It’s a profoundly sad story.
About the author
Michela Wrong (1961-) spent six years covering events in Africa for Reuters, the BBC, and the Financial Times. She is the author of four nonfiction books about Africa and a legal thriller. Wrong lives in London, where she frequently is interviewed on the BBC, Al Jazeera and Reuters.
I got it all wrong
Sadly, I got it all wrong. And so has a generation of diplomats, international bureaucrats, aid officials, and philanthropists who have poured billions into the regime of that “benevolent dictator.”
Because President Paul Kagame is no philosopher king. The economic statistics are inflated. And those 250,000 bodies are all Tutsis like the President and nearly everyone else in his regime. They do not include any of the hundreds of thousands of Hutus that Kagame’s army murdered in revenge when they liberated the country from the génocidaires. It all comes to light in veteran foreign correspondent Michela Wrong’s shocking exposé, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad.
A tale of three men, revolutionaries all
Do Not Disturb is framed as an inquiry into the murder of a high-level refugee from Rwanda in a Johannesburg hotel room in 2013. The book starts with a detailed account of the murder—an assassination, really—and closes with news of the much-delayed inquest in South Africa more than five years later. In between these bookends, Wrong relates the complex, three-decade history of the region that led up to the genocide. She shows how the story involves not just tiny Rwanda and its 12 million people but all the nearby nations as well, including Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, and what is today called the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Together, the five countries house a population approaching that of the United States.
But, properly speaking, Do Not Disturb is a story of three men who were brothers-in-arms in the Uganda-based force that overthrew the génocidaire regime in Kigali. Paul Kagame (1957-), President of Rwanda since 2000. Patrick Karegewa (1960-2013), Rwanda’s long-time chief of intelligence and Kagame’s aide-turned-victim. And Fred Rwigyema (1957-90), the charismatic and much-loved leader of the revolutionary army who might well have led Rwanda had he survived the fighting.
Learning the rules for revolution in Uganda
Kagame, Karegewa, and Rwingyema were all members of the Tutsi ethnic community. Like so many others, they lived not in Rwanda but in neighboring Uganda. Karegewa even considered himself Ugandan, as his family had lived in the country for generations. As young men, they were all engaged in the brutal revolutionary movement that overthrew, first, the homicidal buffoon Idi Amin (1925-2003), and then his equally tyrannical successor, Milton Obote (1925-2005). The three all played roles in installing as Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni in 1986, who remains in office to this day. Later, they came together again to mount an invasion of Rwanda, to overthrow the Hutu regime led by Juvénal Habiyarimana (1937-94). It was Habiyarimana whose death in a plane crash is generally credited with triggering the genocide.
A complex tale boiled down to essentials
As Michela Wrong tells it, this story is complex, full of twists, turns, and backtracks. But it’s essentially a simple tale. The three stars of the story—Kagame, Karegewa, and Rwingyema—collaborated uneasily in a revolutionary alliance for several years in Uganda before the 1990 invasion of their homeland.
The inspirational leader: Fred Rwingyema
The popular and compassionate Fred Rwingyema stood head and shoulders above the others. He was widely regarded as the man to replace Habiyarimana at the helm of Rwanda’s government once the Hutu regime fell.
The cheerful spy: Patrick Karegewa
Patrick Karegewa, who was close to the Ugandan revolutionary leader they all had followed, rose quickly in the independence movement, playing a leading role in securing resources from neighboring governments. With a cheerful, outgoing personality, Karegewa was, like Ryingyema, popular among the troops. He was the movement’s chief diplomat.
The control freak: President Paul Kagame
By contrast, Paul Kagame was unpopular and even despised by many who served with him. He was a dour and vindictive man known by his nickname “Pilato” (Pontius Pilate) for his demonstrated willingness to condemn colleagues to death for minor infractions. Wrong characterizes him as “the ultimate control freak.” Yet after Rwingyema died on the second day of the invasion of Rwanda in 1990, it was Kagame who took the helm of the movement and then the nation. Karegewa was among his aides as chief of external intelligence.
Controversy surrounds Fred Ryingyema’s death. He may have been felled by a stray bullet in battle with French soldiers who supported the Hutu regime—or at the hands of a jealous colleague in the revolutionary army. But there is no longer any mystery about Patrick Karegewa’s death. He was murdered by thugs in South Africa hired by Paul Kagame. He was one of many high-level Rwandan refugees and exiles killed for their refusal to remain complicit in the President’s crimes. And, as MIchela Wrong reveals about bringing this truth to light, “I’ve written books before that annoyed ruling regimes, but have never felt quite so personally at risk.”
Where is Rwanda?
Africa is vast. It’s nearly three times the size of the United States and houses a population topping one billion. So, tiny, landlocked Rwanda is easy to overlook on a map. You might imagine it as a dependency of its massive neighbor to the west, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with its population of 92 million. Yet, as Michela Wrong shows, in some ways the opposite is the case. For many years, in fact, Rwanda has been the dominant force in much of the eastern DRC. And the Kagame regime was instrumental in deposing the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-97), the DRC’s tyrannical, long-serving president. Rwanda’s population of just 12 million and its President Paul Kagame exert influence far out of proportion to their number.
So, why does Rwanda remain the poster child of African progress?
Why, then, if all this is true—and I am convinced it is, after independently checking parts of this report—does the international community continue to shovel resources into Rwanda? (Just for the record, here’s Michela Wrong noting one source of confirmation: “Google ‘YouTube,’ ‘Assassination,’ ‘General,’ and ‘Kayumba,’ and you can listen to Kagame’s henchmen at their sinister work, with subtitles in English and French helpfully provided.”) The author’s explanation emerges from her narrative. There seem to be four reasons:
1. Public relations
The public relations campaign President Paul Kagame’s minions have had underway since the beginning is singularly effective. It takes a lot of digging to turn up the truth about conditions in Rwanda and the history of the men at the country’s helm. And, as Wrong notes, “the storyteller’s need to identify Good Guys and Bad Guys, culprit and victims, makes fools of us all.”
2. Economics
In some cases, particularly those involving other African regimes, lucrative trade relations and other benefits have helped suppress any tendencies to express displeasure with the Kagame government.
3. A powerful army
The fact that Rwanda has, as Wrong notes, the most powerful army in Africa plays a role, too. Its frequent contributions to international peacekeeping forces make it possible for other nations to avoid participating in dangerous missions organized by the Organisation of African Unity or the UN.
4. Realpolitik
But, in the final analysis, realpolitik reigns here. Diplomats, aid officials, and philanthropists ignore the “human rights violations”—in reality, government-sanctioned murder—because they have higher priorities. Kagame paints a pretty picture of “progress” that looks good in their reports, and the doctored statistics are impressive. But the reality that emerges from Wrong’s account is that the Tutsi forces under President Paul Kagame’s leadership have murdered nearly as many people as perished in the genocide. The examples she cites from independent studies add up to about 700,000 dead. Some 800,000 to one million people died in the genocide.
As Wrong concludes, “Having broadly decided at one point that Kagame and the RPF were ‘the Good Guys’ in Rwanda, ‘Good Guys’ who had stopped what was self-evidently ‘A Very Bad Thing,’ many an academic, diplomat, development official, and businessman would cling with a sloth’s viselike grip to that view, pretty much irrespective of events on the ground or any suggestion that the RPF had, in fact, played a part in bringing that Very Bad Thing about.”
It’s a profoundly sad story.
About the author
Michela Wrong (1961-) spent six years covering events in Africa for Reuters, the BBC, and the Financial Times. She is the author of four nonfiction books about Africa and a legal thriller. Wrong lives in London, where she frequently is interviewed on the BBC, Al Jazeera and Reuters.
April 2, 2021
I cannot begin to thank Michela Wrong enough for writing this masterpiece.
Growing up, I learned about the Rwandan genocide. All that was taught was there were two majority ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis. Over the course of 100 days, armed Hutu militias slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Tutsis. It seemed cut and dry- the Hutus were the only perpetrators, and they were evil, on par with the Nazis in World War II.
Michela Wrong wrote a stunning novel that has made me understand how much more complicated than that it really was. In fact, the Tutsis of the RPF (the current ruling political party) committed many atrocities as well. The story of Rwanda is fraught with ethnic tensions and divisions, and of a "payback" mentality. The international community was fed stories by the RPF of the previous government being the epitome of evil, without realizing that the RPF was committing crimes against humanity of their own.
This book explores all of that, but it also explores the key players of the RPF, the previous administration, and the journalists that broke the story to the international community that all was not what it seemed in Rwanda. If you are interested in African politics, in true crime, or in the political power of journalism, this is a must read. Michela Wrong has constructed a thorough and detailed account of Rwanda's bloody history and put her own life at risk to get such incredible details.
Thank you to the publishers for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!
Growing up, I learned about the Rwandan genocide. All that was taught was there were two majority ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis. Over the course of 100 days, armed Hutu militias slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Tutsis. It seemed cut and dry- the Hutus were the only perpetrators, and they were evil, on par with the Nazis in World War II.
Michela Wrong wrote a stunning novel that has made me understand how much more complicated than that it really was. In fact, the Tutsis of the RPF (the current ruling political party) committed many atrocities as well. The story of Rwanda is fraught with ethnic tensions and divisions, and of a "payback" mentality. The international community was fed stories by the RPF of the previous government being the epitome of evil, without realizing that the RPF was committing crimes against humanity of their own.
This book explores all of that, but it also explores the key players of the RPF, the previous administration, and the journalists that broke the story to the international community that all was not what it seemed in Rwanda. If you are interested in African politics, in true crime, or in the political power of journalism, this is a must read. Michela Wrong has constructed a thorough and detailed account of Rwanda's bloody history and put her own life at risk to get such incredible details.
Thank you to the publishers for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!
December 10, 2025
TT 2025 - Travelling Around the World Challenge
Country: Rwanda
Mid-level
A tough one to rate.
I’m giving it 4 stars (though my personal reading experience leaned closer to 3.5), because this is an essential, sobering read for anyone trying to understand the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and the complex events both leading up to and following it.
The subject matter is devastating, the research meticulous, and the personal risks Michaela Wrong took in writing this are nothing short of courageous. The realpolitik she unpacks—both pre- and post-publication in 2021—feels tragically consistent. (Cue bitter laugh.)
For Wrong, this book also seems to serve as a kind of professional reckoning. She reflects on having once accepted a version of events that, in hindsight, was deeply flawed. This feels like a journalist’s act of atonement, an attempt to set the record straight, even belatedly.
And yet, the world largely remains in denial, or hides behind the convenient excuse of ignorance, about what has unfolded in Rwanda since Kagame and the RPF came to power.
‐---------
Personal experience on listening:
While some GR reviews blame Michaela Wrong with bias and white-colonialist attitude, I found no traces of either! What I did struggle a bit with was the writing itself.
The book often assumed a high level of prior knowledge, for me, too much. The narrative sometimes jumped between issues or timelines too quickly, making it occasionally confusing and frustrating.
As for the audiobook: unfortunately, it didn’t help matters. Wrong narrates her own work, and while that can sometimes add intimacy, here it had the opposite effect. Her delivery was flat and monotonous, which only deepened my emotional distance.
Still, this is an important book, absolutely worth reading, but one I wish had been a bit more clearly structured and more dynamically narrated.
Country: Rwanda
Mid-level
A tough one to rate.
I’m giving it 4 stars (though my personal reading experience leaned closer to 3.5), because this is an essential, sobering read for anyone trying to understand the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and the complex events both leading up to and following it.
The subject matter is devastating, the research meticulous, and the personal risks Michaela Wrong took in writing this are nothing short of courageous. The realpolitik she unpacks—both pre- and post-publication in 2021—feels tragically consistent. (Cue bitter laugh.)
For Wrong, this book also seems to serve as a kind of professional reckoning. She reflects on having once accepted a version of events that, in hindsight, was deeply flawed. This feels like a journalist’s act of atonement, an attempt to set the record straight, even belatedly.
And yet, the world largely remains in denial, or hides behind the convenient excuse of ignorance, about what has unfolded in Rwanda since Kagame and the RPF came to power.
‐---------
Personal experience on listening:
While some GR reviews blame Michaela Wrong with bias and white-colonialist attitude, I found no traces of either! What I did struggle a bit with was the writing itself.
The book often assumed a high level of prior knowledge, for me, too much. The narrative sometimes jumped between issues or timelines too quickly, making it occasionally confusing and frustrating.
As for the audiobook: unfortunately, it didn’t help matters. Wrong narrates her own work, and while that can sometimes add intimacy, here it had the opposite effect. Her delivery was flat and monotonous, which only deepened my emotional distance.
Still, this is an important book, absolutely worth reading, but one I wish had been a bit more clearly structured and more dynamically narrated.
April 10, 2021
A must read on Rwanda. Add this to Anjan Sundaram's "Bad News" and you can get a good view of what modern Rwanda is really like aside from the usual PR nonsense put out by people who don't look behind the curtain. The evil that this mafia state commits is so great that no one book can give it adequate coverage, but Wrong covers the main low points. The average citizen of this police state is the one being crushed, and those who claim to love the country but say nothing about its oppression are hypocrites.
Wrong traces the lives of Patrick Karegeya, Paul Kagame, Fred Rwigyema, and other RPF notables, showing what is and what might have been. Had Rwigyema not been killed history would certainly have been very different, possibly even avoiding the genocide of 1994. If you are not familiar with Rwanda the blizzard of names, parties, and events may be overwhelming, although I think Wrong keeps the story moving along and explains most things on a level that is accessible, but I have read so much about the country that I am not a good judge of this. Many of her sources have lots and lots of blood on their own hands. There are not good guys and bad guys in this story, and that trips up Westerners trying to frame a nice narrative. But there is truth and falsehood, and Wrong is on the side of truth. She exposes the raw and ugly story of the nation from the origins of the RPF until now.
Kagame is of course at the center of this story in all of his paranoia, evil, and pettiness. History is going to judge the man and this time with extreme harshness, and the foolishness of people like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair who went along with a pack of lies will be marks against them.
This is another book that I wish could get into the hands of everyone who deals with Rwanda in any way, and doesn't just sit on the shelf but is read. Unfortunately that will not happen and all the usual propaganda will be deployed against it. Wrong quotes Malcolm X at the end of the book: "I am for truth no matter who tells it. I am for justice no matter who it's for or against." If you like truth, you should read this book.
Wrong traces the lives of Patrick Karegeya, Paul Kagame, Fred Rwigyema, and other RPF notables, showing what is and what might have been. Had Rwigyema not been killed history would certainly have been very different, possibly even avoiding the genocide of 1994. If you are not familiar with Rwanda the blizzard of names, parties, and events may be overwhelming, although I think Wrong keeps the story moving along and explains most things on a level that is accessible, but I have read so much about the country that I am not a good judge of this. Many of her sources have lots and lots of blood on their own hands. There are not good guys and bad guys in this story, and that trips up Westerners trying to frame a nice narrative. But there is truth and falsehood, and Wrong is on the side of truth. She exposes the raw and ugly story of the nation from the origins of the RPF until now.
Kagame is of course at the center of this story in all of his paranoia, evil, and pettiness. History is going to judge the man and this time with extreme harshness, and the foolishness of people like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair who went along with a pack of lies will be marks against them.
This is another book that I wish could get into the hands of everyone who deals with Rwanda in any way, and doesn't just sit on the shelf but is read. Unfortunately that will not happen and all the usual propaganda will be deployed against it. Wrong quotes Malcolm X at the end of the book: "I am for truth no matter who tells it. I am for justice no matter who it's for or against." If you like truth, you should read this book.
January 10, 2022
I didn't know much about Rwanda apart from the atrocious 1994 genocide of the Tutsi's by the Hutu's, and a vague notion that ever since it has been relatively peaceful and developing well. It turns out the truth is much more complex.
Central storyline in this work of investigative non-fiction is the murder in 2014 of Rwanda's former intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya, who had fled the country after falling afoul of President Paul Kagame and set up an opposition movement from South Africa. Both men are Tutsi and had known each other since their youth growing up in the Tutsi diaspora in Uganda.
The book starts with the murder and then jumps back in time to give the fascinating historical background leading up to the present situation in which the Tutsi Kagame is using all means, including multiple political assassinations, to remain in power, and Western governments and donors choose to turn a blind eye.
The history essentially starts with the ousting of the ruling Tutsi class during the Hutu revolution of 1959, their Ugandan exile and their development of a military and political resistance movement that helps install Museveni in Uganda and that subsequently invades Rwanda before the genocide (and indirectly triggering it by supposedly downing the plane that carried the presidents of both Rwanda and Burundi). The movement, now called RPF, ultimately develops into one of Africa's best armies, but after its inspiring leader Fred Ryogema is killed, leadership somehow falls in the hands of Kagame who slowly but certainly develops into a dictator.
The book reminded me a lot of studying international relations. You get the power politics of Sub-Sahara Africa and it is very the surprising how influential a small country like Rwanda is in neighbouring Uganda, DRC and even South Africa. It is full of amazing episodes and incredible anecdotes that unfortunately can really only happen in Africa.
Central storyline in this work of investigative non-fiction is the murder in 2014 of Rwanda's former intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya, who had fled the country after falling afoul of President Paul Kagame and set up an opposition movement from South Africa. Both men are Tutsi and had known each other since their youth growing up in the Tutsi diaspora in Uganda.
The book starts with the murder and then jumps back in time to give the fascinating historical background leading up to the present situation in which the Tutsi Kagame is using all means, including multiple political assassinations, to remain in power, and Western governments and donors choose to turn a blind eye.
The history essentially starts with the ousting of the ruling Tutsi class during the Hutu revolution of 1959, their Ugandan exile and their development of a military and political resistance movement that helps install Museveni in Uganda and that subsequently invades Rwanda before the genocide (and indirectly triggering it by supposedly downing the plane that carried the presidents of both Rwanda and Burundi). The movement, now called RPF, ultimately develops into one of Africa's best armies, but after its inspiring leader Fred Ryogema is killed, leadership somehow falls in the hands of Kagame who slowly but certainly develops into a dictator.
The book reminded me a lot of studying international relations. You get the power politics of Sub-Sahara Africa and it is very the surprising how influential a small country like Rwanda is in neighbouring Uganda, DRC and even South Africa. It is full of amazing episodes and incredible anecdotes that unfortunately can really only happen in Africa.
April 15, 2021
I think this is well-written. It certainly makes for a great whodunnit, but I think the author plays it fast and loose with the truth and relies too often on speculation. Most of her sources come from the intelligence community -- plus and I can't name how many times she's quoted "anonymous" sources. I think, with a subject as serious as this, there is a need for authors to really write cautiously and carefully before jumping to conclusions. Troublingly, Wrong also makes some generalisations about Rwandans and Africans and general. It doesn't really add anything to her narrative.
February 11, 2021
I won an advanced copy of this book on Goodreads. I found this book to be tough to get through. Like it was "inside baseball." Not that I didn't appreciate all the research that went into it but I felt more of an outsider trying to figure it all out. I guess I am so far removed from it all that I felt befuddled and didn't really have a clear grasp to what was happening with all the political intrigue, corruption and the inner workings of the government of Rwanda. I felt unfortunately, that I had to be an insider to truly understand what was happening here.
June 11, 2023
Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, Michaela’s Wrong’s exhaustingly well-researched account of nearly four decades of Rwandan politics, is undoubtedly a must-read, especially for those of us in the Western world, who have been thus far only exposed to the official Kigali narrative: one that portrays Rwandan president Paul Kagame in a glowing, adulatory light - the man who “stopped the genocide, stabilized the Rwandan economy, and made Rwanda Africa’s darling of politics by influential Western politicians, businessmen, philanthropists, and scholars alike.
Without hearing a single other fact or account, you can’t help but to be automatically suspicious of any leader who has been in power for 23 years, and whose yes-men fail to see the ridiculousness of pushing forth the “results” of a 2015 referendum which allows for Kagame to continue running for election until 2034. The result of this public referendum, it was claimed, was “approved by 98 percent of voters” and lawmakers consulting with nationwide electoral commissions stated they’d found only “ten people who opposed the idea.”
I think it’s much more likely that just like any other autocratic/dictatorial state with a climate of fear to prevent civilians and former influential politicians (sometimes even close friends) from speaking out, ordinary civilians are simply much too afraid for themselves or their family members if they dissent from the status quo. And given that Rwanda has the most powerful military in Africa, along with a surveillance network that would make the former East German Stasi proud, it’s easy to see why no one would want to take the risk of speaking against someone who has seemingly proven himself untouchable.
It’s hard to argue against this after taking one look at Kagame’s Instagram: it shows he currently enjoys the support and/or friendship of many influential philanthropic organizations, along with popular figures such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Pope Francis, Ellen Degeneres, and politicians such as Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron (for starters).
But before he became the “most efficient and stable president in Africa” (up until present day) Wrong presents us with a very different picture of a young Kagame who always felt like an outsider among his fellow RPF members, whom were more educated, more charismatic, and just overall more well-liked. Kagame, in the meantime, was seen as a high school dropout, someone who enjoyed getting people into trouble at a young age, and enjoyed the control of meting out punishments to what he considered his unruly fellow rebels/brothers-in-arms. Kagame’s insecurities seem to only have grown with his massive power, causing him to order assassinations of loyal friends he’d known since childhood, on only the flimsiest of rumors that he’d never bother to fully substantiate.
The sheer amount of players and countries involved can sometimes be overwhelming to the reader, and hence I found myself referring to the “list of principal players” on more than one occasion, located at the book’s beginning. One thing is certain though: before now, we really only got whispers of misdeeds by the RPF and what happened to its members that fell out of favor with Kagame. It’s quite plain to see now that everyone, Tutsi or Hutu (key players, anyway) were likely guilty at some point to some degree or another - and that it wasn’t just Tutsis murdered by Hutus in the genocide as the official line goes, but Hutus killed in high numbers by the RPF as well, and even large amounts of Tutsis killed off by the Kagame government who appeared “traitorous.”
One of the only problems I have with the book is that the author seems utterly enthralled with the man whom I believed inspired her greatly to write the book: Patrick Karegeya. He is indeed the man she references in the subtitle of the book, “the story of a political murder”, and while Wrong does acknowledge that Karegeya himself had committed atrocities during the rebellion, they seemed limited only to those that Karegeya had confirmed or strongly alluded to committing before his premature murder.
Otherwise, I wonder if there isn’t a strong sense of bias - at least toward Karegeya and his very close inner circle - that we are being subjected to. Unlike every other Ugandan or Rwandan, whether loyal to the former Habyarimana regime overthrown by the RPF/NRA or members of the very rebel group that brought Kagame to power today, Karegeya is always referred to as simply “Patrick” by the author. Whereas this does happen on occasion with other key players, Karegeya is the only one who is routinely referred to using his first name only (everyone else is mostly referred to by their title and last name, or first and last name).
It just makes me wonder how much of her material may have been compromised to some extent if the rumors that I later stumbled upon were actually true at some point - rumors claiming Wrong had been engaged in an extramarital affair with Patrick Karegeya. That would explain her constant reference to his charisma, how he could “win anyone over with his smile/laughter”, his “sensitive, hooded eyes”, “honeydew skin”, etc.
I’m not suggesting by any means that this should deter readers away from reading this very well-researched account, complete with a number of great sources. Only that perhaps it should be kept in mind that even if the more salacious rumors of an affair aren’t true, Karegeya was clearly an individual who left an indelible impression on Wrong, which could have of course biased some of the reports in some way.
I know many Rwandans say they love Kagame and that they’re incredibly proud of the work he’s done since coming into power at the turn of the century. It’s also difficult to tell though, in a country where dissent can mean death, just how many of these staunch “supporters” are really being truthful with what they say publicly.
Highly recommended for all interested in this very sad and violent story, which went far too underreported in the Western world (which has made it clear that they don’t mind turning a blind eye to some of the most unsavory allegations against Rwanda’s government leaders, so long as they continue to profit from doing business in the area and Rwanda continues to be an exemplary “law and order state” - even if that law and order comes at the expense of severely curtailed freedoms and violent repression).
If anyone knows of a book more favorable to Kagame written by a well-sourced and respected journalist who seems to have little bias, I’d definitely appreciate that recommendation. It is always important to hear both sides of the argument as extensively as possible before coming to a conclusion on the matter - although Wrong certainly did a great job for the anti-Kagame side and all those he’s sidelined, exiled, jailed, or executed in the past 25+ years.
Probably closer to 4 1/2 stars than 4.
Read
March 17, 2023Kagame has 'stablized' Rwanda, though there is smoke blowing recently, the country is at the edge of another violence; has made huge economic progress; but it also true that he is a thug—he killed thousands of Hutus, he systematically erased them from victims' history, he kills his opponents.
Well I don't refute the facts in this book, but the authenticity is of the concern.
May be this was bad opening of book;
“One of Rwanda’s prime ministers, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, shocked the head of a UN peacekeeping force by telling him: “Rwandans are liars and it is a part of their culture. From childhood they are taught to not tell the truth, especially if it can hurt them.”
Expecting to believe an oral account of A Rwandan whom the author has preempted that they are liars, is ridiculous.
Well I don't refute the facts in this book, but the authenticity is of the concern.
May be this was bad opening of book;
“One of Rwanda’s prime ministers, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, shocked the head of a UN peacekeeping force by telling him: “Rwandans are liars and it is a part of their culture. From childhood they are taught to not tell the truth, especially if it can hurt them.”
Expecting to believe an oral account of A Rwandan whom the author has preempted that they are liars, is ridiculous.
October 11, 2022
The last chapter is the only chapter that truly addresses the problem.
Wrong begins this book by exploring an assassination committed in South Africa by the Rwandan government against a former official. She then explores the history of the RPF from the founders' origins in Uganda.
It paints a picture most people in the West are reluctant to see in Rwanda: A dictatorship which silences opposition. Unfortunately, until the last chapter, Wrong neglects to talk about how this impacts the citizens of Rwanda whatsoever. The entire book, I had a great understanding of how people high up in society are in danger and suffering, but the whole time, I was unsure how the reconciliation was happening.
The final chapter details challenges to Rwanda's current image through exploring the impact of reconciliation policies on the average person. "An African Regime Gone Bad" implies this. However Wrong fixates on the impact of President Kagame's reign on the political elite rather than the actual population. So we are all left to wonder: Is Rwanda headed for China's destiny (increasing wealth with totalitarianism), Taiwan's destiny (an authoritarian regime turned wealthy democracy), or Singapore's destiny (somewhere in between the two)?
I believe Wrong, no matter how little I want to, but I question the wisdom of the book's majority focusing on elite political intrigue with just one chapter focusing on the effects Rwandan human rights violating policies actually have on the millions who live in the country.
Wrong begins this book by exploring an assassination committed in South Africa by the Rwandan government against a former official. She then explores the history of the RPF from the founders' origins in Uganda.
It paints a picture most people in the West are reluctant to see in Rwanda: A dictatorship which silences opposition. Unfortunately, until the last chapter, Wrong neglects to talk about how this impacts the citizens of Rwanda whatsoever. The entire book, I had a great understanding of how people high up in society are in danger and suffering, but the whole time, I was unsure how the reconciliation was happening.
The final chapter details challenges to Rwanda's current image through exploring the impact of reconciliation policies on the average person. "An African Regime Gone Bad" implies this. However Wrong fixates on the impact of President Kagame's reign on the political elite rather than the actual population. So we are all left to wonder: Is Rwanda headed for China's destiny (increasing wealth with totalitarianism), Taiwan's destiny (an authoritarian regime turned wealthy democracy), or Singapore's destiny (somewhere in between the two)?
I believe Wrong, no matter how little I want to, but I question the wisdom of the book's majority focusing on elite political intrigue with just one chapter focusing on the effects Rwandan human rights violating policies actually have on the millions who live in the country.
April 12, 2021
I found this book offensive.
Wrong's writing style is thriller-like, and if I was not familiar with Rwanda, I would find it very exciting. however, the history she speaks of is something which happened to real people, and it is not fair to make it into such a fiction! The people who she relies on for her stories are people who are leading an armed uprising against my country in the Congo, which she seems to ignore. They are responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, and are trying to bring down the Rwandan government and start another war - the last thing our people need! She seems to be a spokesperson for the RNC armed movement, and I find it very shocking that so many Westerners are praising her work. Combine that with all the racist things she says about Rwanda, and this book is an insult.
Wrong's writing style is thriller-like, and if I was not familiar with Rwanda, I would find it very exciting. however, the history she speaks of is something which happened to real people, and it is not fair to make it into such a fiction! The people who she relies on for her stories are people who are leading an armed uprising against my country in the Congo, which she seems to ignore. They are responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, and are trying to bring down the Rwandan government and start another war - the last thing our people need! She seems to be a spokesperson for the RNC armed movement, and I find it very shocking that so many Westerners are praising her work. Combine that with all the racist things she says about Rwanda, and this book is an insult.
April 6, 2021
I sped through this book- I’ve visited Rwanda several times and have definitely enjoyed this book by way of revisiting places I have been (and currently live in Uganda) and people that you hear about. It’s an important book that sheds light on the shadows that have permeated and continue to guide the path forward. A must read for those interested in East/Central Africa but also those interested in espionage, diaspora, and other topics.
October 29, 2025
4,5/5 stars
Part murder mystery, part spy thriller and part tragedy this book is an excellent introduction to Contemporary Rwanda (and central Africa in general). Using the murder of a Rwandan oppositionist and former Kagame loyalist , the author tells a story that starts small in scale but that soon involves the Genocide in Rwanda, the conflict in Congo and the current Kagame dictatorship. The current regime ( and president )emerge as a violent bullying dictatorship , using any means necessary against those it considers enemies while also using it power to distabilise the region for it's own profit.
The book is well written and reads very compellingly and succeeds to explain a region and history with which I was very unfamiliar. It's tale of gruesome horror, tyranny unchecked and revolution that eats it's own children and mostly of a west that has led itself being bamboozeled by a regime that commits every human rights violation imaginable. Aside from telling the story ,this book also absolutely has the goal to change the perception of the Rwandan regime in the Western world ( something still very necessary, seeing that recently it could organise the WC cycling without much issue). And in my case it certainly succeeded.
Part murder mystery, part spy thriller and part tragedy this book is an excellent introduction to Contemporary Rwanda (and central Africa in general). Using the murder of a Rwandan oppositionist and former Kagame loyalist , the author tells a story that starts small in scale but that soon involves the Genocide in Rwanda, the conflict in Congo and the current Kagame dictatorship. The current regime ( and president )emerge as a violent bullying dictatorship , using any means necessary against those it considers enemies while also using it power to distabilise the region for it's own profit.
The book is well written and reads very compellingly and succeeds to explain a region and history with which I was very unfamiliar. It's tale of gruesome horror, tyranny unchecked and revolution that eats it's own children and mostly of a west that has led itself being bamboozeled by a regime that commits every human rights violation imaginable. Aside from telling the story ,this book also absolutely has the goal to change the perception of the Rwandan regime in the Western world ( something still very necessary, seeing that recently it could organise the WC cycling without much issue). And in my case it certainly succeeded.
November 25, 2021
First class journalism neighboring a history lesson. Thanks to Michela Wrong, Zaire, Eritreea, Kenya aren't so outlandish. Now Rwanda too. What fascinates me is that this is not some 'once upon a time in Rwanda' story. It's about today. A murderous and blood-thirsty dictator is going on and the Western democracies are dancing with him as if nothing happens. In that, this book changes the narrative about Rwanda for years to come and possibly has put a gunpowder keg on fire.
May 11, 2021
central african meets james bond meets che guevara meets malcolm x meets mancur olson's stationary bandits meets south africa's world cup meets robert bates. best book ive read in a really long time. i kept thinking there are two definitions of a great book: first, the ones where the derivative of knowledge with respect to pages is the highest in absolute value. second, the ones where the derivative of knowledge with respect to pages changes sign/direction after you finish reading. this is definitely the first case. why? part of it is i knew very little about rwanda--or any other country in central/eastern africa except for kenya and maybe drc (thanks kremer and sanchez de la sierra, respectively). but another (big) part of it is the author's story telling. she is detailed but dynamic. she provides just enough context to not get lost in the story. she is so good i just copped her book on eritrea's history and i expect its derivative to be as high as this one's.
March 6, 2022
Michela Wrong you did it again!!! And it might have been my own stake in the countries in the book but I felt that this was your great masterpiece.
A must read for Ugandans and Rwandans I'd say. I hadn't know the extent to which the two coutries politics are so tightly inter-twined.
Oh and the way she writes it like a story of intrigue - I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
A must read for Ugandans and Rwandans I'd say. I hadn't know the extent to which the two coutries politics are so tightly inter-twined.
Oh and the way she writes it like a story of intrigue - I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
August 14, 2021
A brilliant piece of investigative journalism by Michela Wrong. She uses, as focal point, the murder of Patrick Karegeya, a one time ally turned political opponent of Paul Kagame, to demonstrate with solid arguments, eye witness accounts and some documentary support, the brutal and repressive nature of the President of Rwanda, once the darling of the west for bringing the 1994 genocide to an end and also the recipient of enormous amounts of foreign aid.
The investigation exposes the cover-up of the murder - which took place in Johannesburg in 2014 - by the South African government. They had evidence that the murder was linked to Kigali but suppressed it for political reasons. It took a right wing South African organisation, Afriforum, to force the case to court, where a decree by the magistrate found that the guilty parties had already been established and issued an order that the NPA follow up with a prosecution. By this time, the guilty parties were back in Kigali where the government showed no inclination to accede to the South African government's request for extradition. Wrong concludes there is no doubt they were being sheltered by politicians in high places - namely Paul Kagame.
Wrong shows quite convincingly that the RPF, of which Kagame and Karegeya were members, while being praised for ending the Hutu genocide of Tutsi's in Rwanda, were equally guilty themselves of organising the mass execution of Hutus in 1996-7, especially in the Congo (DRC), where they also stripped the country of valuable minerals and resources which were sent back to Kigali. Wrong writes
“In a 550-page report it finally brought out in 2010, the UN detailed 617 separate incidents in which Hutu refugees were bludgeoned, macheted, bayoneted, shot, or burned to death. Most controversially, it said the “systematic and widespread” nature of the attacks, targeting not only Hutu refugees from Rwanda but also Hutus of Burundian and Zairean nationality, meant they might well merit the term “genocide,” this time one directed against the Hutus. No definitive death toll was ever possible, but the UNHCR reckoned that some 200,000 people remained unaccounted for.”
The darling of the West is not so squeaky clean after all.
An interesting facet of the investigation is the exposé of the incredible intelligence and spy network created by Paul Kagame's government, a network so vast that it was able to keep track of the Rwandese diaspora abroad. Dissidents who spoke out against the existing regime were secretively and summarily dealt with (often by being assassinated) despite being in another country's territory. The author quotes security personnel who claim that “… the formative influence on Rwandan intelligence is Mossad.” Wrong further speculates that the Rwanda government could well have used spyware associated with Israeli military intelligence: “Given Rwanda’s links with Israel’s military intelligence, it seemed logical to assume any cybersecurity company selling wares to Addis Ababa would also have approached Kigali. Sure enough, Citizen Lab identified Rwanda as one of the customers to have been provided a demo.” Recent developments seem to strengthen Wrong's speculation. In July 2021, the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa’s phone was identified as appearing in the records of the Israeli based Pegasus spy project as a potential target. This was according to a Guardian reporter who went on to report that Rwanda was closely linked with this leak and that “Ramaphosa’s number seems to have been selected by Rwanda in 2019.”
On a personal level, Wrong has shown Kagame to have a brutal temper, often resorting to publicly beating and kicking his senior staff members to humiliate them and keep them from opposing him. According to an eye witness report, a bad tempered Paul Kagame was displeased with his army officers in a meeting and “worked his way across the room, kicking and punching each one”.
For all the impressive development gains that Rwanda is now praised for (thanks to donor money?) a look under the impressive surface shows that an African Switzerland it is not. Its leader is a ruthless and brutal autocrat with blood on his hands and a determination to eliminate any opposition to his firmly entrenched position no matter where in the world they are.
The investigation exposes the cover-up of the murder - which took place in Johannesburg in 2014 - by the South African government. They had evidence that the murder was linked to Kigali but suppressed it for political reasons. It took a right wing South African organisation, Afriforum, to force the case to court, where a decree by the magistrate found that the guilty parties had already been established and issued an order that the NPA follow up with a prosecution. By this time, the guilty parties were back in Kigali where the government showed no inclination to accede to the South African government's request for extradition. Wrong concludes there is no doubt they were being sheltered by politicians in high places - namely Paul Kagame.
Wrong shows quite convincingly that the RPF, of which Kagame and Karegeya were members, while being praised for ending the Hutu genocide of Tutsi's in Rwanda, were equally guilty themselves of organising the mass execution of Hutus in 1996-7, especially in the Congo (DRC), where they also stripped the country of valuable minerals and resources which were sent back to Kigali. Wrong writes
“In a 550-page report it finally brought out in 2010, the UN detailed 617 separate incidents in which Hutu refugees were bludgeoned, macheted, bayoneted, shot, or burned to death. Most controversially, it said the “systematic and widespread” nature of the attacks, targeting not only Hutu refugees from Rwanda but also Hutus of Burundian and Zairean nationality, meant they might well merit the term “genocide,” this time one directed against the Hutus. No definitive death toll was ever possible, but the UNHCR reckoned that some 200,000 people remained unaccounted for.”
The darling of the West is not so squeaky clean after all.
An interesting facet of the investigation is the exposé of the incredible intelligence and spy network created by Paul Kagame's government, a network so vast that it was able to keep track of the Rwandese diaspora abroad. Dissidents who spoke out against the existing regime were secretively and summarily dealt with (often by being assassinated) despite being in another country's territory. The author quotes security personnel who claim that “… the formative influence on Rwandan intelligence is Mossad.” Wrong further speculates that the Rwanda government could well have used spyware associated with Israeli military intelligence: “Given Rwanda’s links with Israel’s military intelligence, it seemed logical to assume any cybersecurity company selling wares to Addis Ababa would also have approached Kigali. Sure enough, Citizen Lab identified Rwanda as one of the customers to have been provided a demo.” Recent developments seem to strengthen Wrong's speculation. In July 2021, the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa’s phone was identified as appearing in the records of the Israeli based Pegasus spy project as a potential target. This was according to a Guardian reporter who went on to report that Rwanda was closely linked with this leak and that “Ramaphosa’s number seems to have been selected by Rwanda in 2019.”
On a personal level, Wrong has shown Kagame to have a brutal temper, often resorting to publicly beating and kicking his senior staff members to humiliate them and keep them from opposing him. According to an eye witness report, a bad tempered Paul Kagame was displeased with his army officers in a meeting and “worked his way across the room, kicking and punching each one”.
For all the impressive development gains that Rwanda is now praised for (thanks to donor money?) a look under the impressive surface shows that an African Switzerland it is not. Its leader is a ruthless and brutal autocrat with blood on his hands and a determination to eliminate any opposition to his firmly entrenched position no matter where in the world they are.
April 16, 2021
I read this book because I wanted to learn more about Rwanda. While I thought it was a 'page turner' it became clear very quickly that the book was not the balanced, well researched and accurate piece of journalism I was led to believe it would be. Ms Wrong only paints one biased picture of events, even declaring that she didn't even try and speak to anyone who might contradict the accounts of her primary sources. This is a basic failure of good journalism. Ms Wrong also quotes from 'Jambonews', a quick google of these guys shows them up to be part of the Hutu Power movement who were the ones behind the Genocide of the Tutsi. I'm pretty sure this would cause great distress to Rwandans reading the book. In summary: good read but bad journalism.
November 5, 2021
Shocking, but not so shocking after having read Gerald Prunier's Africa's World War. I've heard several rumors about Kagame's Rwanda's careful PR exercise and image building. I've pragmatically dismissed those rumors as sections or fuelled by unqualified envy towards an effective leader who's working hard to rebuild his country. I still hold this position.
Nevertheless, this book pulls back the veil on the operations behind the machine, led by Kagame, that's hellbent on sanitizing Rwanda's external image. While most of the accounts are one-sided and rely heavily on "anonymous" sources, it is still eerily realistic.
It reads like a thriller. I would not entirely dismiss the assertions. I would not swallow the whole pill either, only taking it as a version of the story of Rwanda.
Nevertheless, this book pulls back the veil on the operations behind the machine, led by Kagame, that's hellbent on sanitizing Rwanda's external image. While most of the accounts are one-sided and rely heavily on "anonymous" sources, it is still eerily realistic.
It reads like a thriller. I would not entirely dismiss the assertions. I would not swallow the whole pill either, only taking it as a version of the story of Rwanda.
August 24, 2021
While this book is brilliantly written it smacks of moralistic condescension and neo-colonialism. Ms. Wrong will never write such a pamphlet about General De Gaulle who has ordered various assassinations of those who opposed his policies. Many of the militants of the OAS were, during WW2, his supporters. When from 1961, when he decided to recognize that the Algerians had won the war, he threw those of his erstwhile supporters who were for "Algérie Française" under the bus. Those who tried to oppose him were killed without any compliments. Kagame is founding a state, it is a bloody affair. Ms. Wrong doesn't get it!
June 22, 2021
A truly brave work of investigative journalism. Anyone with interest in contemporary Africa, particularly the Great Lakes, needs to read this book.
August 17, 2021
Finally, another perspective!
April 29, 2024
A US diplomat friend of mine, a man I assume worked for the CIA, once mused aloud over the behavior of the Zairean army, notorious for rape and pillage. In a moment of either biting cynicism or seasoned realism, he said, "People always wonder why armies in these situations behave so appallingly. But the answer's so simple: 'Because they can.'"
They can, so they do. Kagame's regime, whose deplorable record on human rights abuses at home is beyond debate, has also been caught red-handed attempting the most lurid of assassinations on the soil of foreign allies, not once but many times. Western funding for his aid-dependent country has not suffered, the admiring articles by foreign journalists have not ceased, sanctions have not been applied, and the invitations to Davos have not dried up.
from Chapter 21: Regret is an Understatement
Michela Wrong's Do Not Disturb is a fascinating foray into the lurid politics and policies of Rwanda under the regime of Paul Kagame. Focusing on the assassination of Kagame's former head of security, Patrick Karegeya, in a South African hotel, Wrong attempts to lift the veil on how Kagame's regime beguiles foreign governments as a model modern African nation while involving itself in inhuman exploits which boggle the mind in their frankness and horror.
Wrong does not sugarcoat her material, but neither does she generalize. There's nothing simple about political intrigue whether conducted in Washington, D.C. or Kigali. It's a complex game of subterfuge--and Rwandan leaders are masters of the subtle art of smoke and mirrors, of playing a "victim" card when necessary, of always having plausible deniability. Wrong takes the reader down some dark corridors of power and illuminates likely motives. It's a fascinating history which opened my eyes to the complexity of African politics in much the same way as Kim Ghattas did for the Middle East with Black Wave.
Highly recommended.
Historian Gerard Prunier regards such attitudes as a lingering form of racism, in which violence is seen by the international community as "normal for Africa," and a firm hand on the tiller a sadly necessary corrective to keep barely civilized inhabitants in control.
"Kagame is seen in the West as a mixture of Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Eisenhower, and General Patton for putting an end to the genocide," Prunier says. "And now on top of that he managed to get all these backward Africans not to use plastic bags and urinate on the sidewalks. There's a refrain that runs, 'Yes, he can be rough on the natives. But can you really expect anything else?'"
"Progressive dictatorship," he comments sardonically, "is a new political category of regime which is spreading worldwide."
from Chapter 18: Do Not Disturb
They can, so they do. Kagame's regime, whose deplorable record on human rights abuses at home is beyond debate, has also been caught red-handed attempting the most lurid of assassinations on the soil of foreign allies, not once but many times. Western funding for his aid-dependent country has not suffered, the admiring articles by foreign journalists have not ceased, sanctions have not been applied, and the invitations to Davos have not dried up.
from Chapter 21: Regret is an Understatement
Michela Wrong's Do Not Disturb is a fascinating foray into the lurid politics and policies of Rwanda under the regime of Paul Kagame. Focusing on the assassination of Kagame's former head of security, Patrick Karegeya, in a South African hotel, Wrong attempts to lift the veil on how Kagame's regime beguiles foreign governments as a model modern African nation while involving itself in inhuman exploits which boggle the mind in their frankness and horror.
Wrong does not sugarcoat her material, but neither does she generalize. There's nothing simple about political intrigue whether conducted in Washington, D.C. or Kigali. It's a complex game of subterfuge--and Rwandan leaders are masters of the subtle art of smoke and mirrors, of playing a "victim" card when necessary, of always having plausible deniability. Wrong takes the reader down some dark corridors of power and illuminates likely motives. It's a fascinating history which opened my eyes to the complexity of African politics in much the same way as Kim Ghattas did for the Middle East with Black Wave.
Highly recommended.
Historian Gerard Prunier regards such attitudes as a lingering form of racism, in which violence is seen by the international community as "normal for Africa," and a firm hand on the tiller a sadly necessary corrective to keep barely civilized inhabitants in control.
"Kagame is seen in the West as a mixture of Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Eisenhower, and General Patton for putting an end to the genocide," Prunier says. "And now on top of that he managed to get all these backward Africans not to use plastic bags and urinate on the sidewalks. There's a refrain that runs, 'Yes, he can be rough on the natives. But can you really expect anything else?'"
"Progressive dictatorship," he comments sardonically, "is a new political category of regime which is spreading worldwide."
from Chapter 18: Do Not Disturb
October 26, 2021
this is great investigative journalism, painstaking, well-written and courageous. michela wrong might be unique in being able to write this book - direct access to many of its wide cast of personalities, many years of experience of central africa, a training with some of the news sources that try hardest for objectivity (since their readers' livelihoods often depend on it). it is brave because the story shines a light at a regime that enjoys impressive PR skills and a vengeful spirit.
the central subject, patrick karegeya, is not whitewashed, as he worked in a the murky industry of intelligence and security. but he is delivered to us sympathetically by an author fortunate enough to have talked often with him. some others show heroic virtues - fred rwigyema, a warm, beloved almost homeric warrior; seth sendashonga, a principled politician who crossed the tutsi-hutu ethnic divide. but none die peacefully.
if this strong book lacked anything for me, it was more space for hutu voices to balance the many tutsi protagonists, in a context where both groups are integral parts of each others' stories. president paul kagame's flaws are shown in their monstrosity, but this is unleavened by recognition of how many rwandans (who fearfully keep quiet about politics) have nevertheless materially benefitted from the regime's enforced stability and dynamism. this is not their story. but it is an important book for anyone with interest or connection to the region to read (i noted soberly a reference to an organization i had worked for), but also for anyone who might think that shakespeare's 'macbeth' is not a sadly eternal tale.
the central subject, patrick karegeya, is not whitewashed, as he worked in a the murky industry of intelligence and security. but he is delivered to us sympathetically by an author fortunate enough to have talked often with him. some others show heroic virtues - fred rwigyema, a warm, beloved almost homeric warrior; seth sendashonga, a principled politician who crossed the tutsi-hutu ethnic divide. but none die peacefully.
if this strong book lacked anything for me, it was more space for hutu voices to balance the many tutsi protagonists, in a context where both groups are integral parts of each others' stories. president paul kagame's flaws are shown in their monstrosity, but this is unleavened by recognition of how many rwandans (who fearfully keep quiet about politics) have nevertheless materially benefitted from the regime's enforced stability and dynamism. this is not their story. but it is an important book for anyone with interest or connection to the region to read (i noted soberly a reference to an organization i had worked for), but also for anyone who might think that shakespeare's 'macbeth' is not a sadly eternal tale.
June 24, 2022
Myth shattering work of journalism/history about Rwanda, and a former regime higher up who was assassinated in South Africa. Paul Kagame's press coverage in the last decade hasn't been purely positive (unlike the glowing propaganda he got out of guilt right after the genocide), but he still is seen as a leader in good standing in the world-and this book lays out pretty clearly, he's just another grubby little tyrant who suppresses all dissent, monitors and kills opponents abroad, and profits off looting his neighbor. It also does a pretty thorough and vivid job of explaining the violent and complicated history of the Great Lakes region. To understand Rwandan history, you really need to know about Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and the Congo, as well as the organizational structure and ideology of various violent revolutionary groups. Can't give it five stars because the portrait of Paul Kagame still feels kind of two dimensional, maybe inevitable because her sources were mainly exiled insiders who of course wouldn't have positive impressions of him. Also, because at a certain point the author wasn't allowed back into Rwanda, the last chapter laying out the flaws of the current status quo felt more polemical then anything.
December 8, 2023
Essential reading for anyone wanting to gain some traction in understanding modern Rwanda, its ‘president’ and the instability they have wrought within the Great Lakes region of Africa.
It is also suggested reading for anyone wanting to understand why the UK Supreme Court rejected the government’s latest asylum seeker scheme.
The book is deeply researched, and extremely well linked together to forge a tale that almost reads as a thriller, rather than a long, arduous lecture that some of these non-fictions amount to.
I finished the book with gut wrenching disappointment towards a country I thought to be a rare bright spot on the continent. I was left fearful of what would become of Rwanda once Kagame’s iron grip, eventually, rusts away.
It is also suggested reading for anyone wanting to understand why the UK Supreme Court rejected the government’s latest asylum seeker scheme.
The book is deeply researched, and extremely well linked together to forge a tale that almost reads as a thriller, rather than a long, arduous lecture that some of these non-fictions amount to.
I finished the book with gut wrenching disappointment towards a country I thought to be a rare bright spot on the continent. I was left fearful of what would become of Rwanda once Kagame’s iron grip, eventually, rusts away.
September 20, 2022
Actual rating 4.5 ⭐️
I can’t explain how brilliantly communicated this book is. It read like fiction or perhaps like an oral retelling of events and moments of historical importance. If you have any interest in post-genocide Rwanda and it’s politics, this is certainly the book you should pick up first 👌🏾
I can’t explain how brilliantly communicated this book is. It read like fiction or perhaps like an oral retelling of events and moments of historical importance. If you have any interest in post-genocide Rwanda and it’s politics, this is certainly the book you should pick up first 👌🏾
July 13, 2022
Dipped in and out of this on audible over a while which was probably why it was hard to keep up with names of people and events. That said - very eye opening and hard hitting. Makes it all the more shocking that the UK government wants to do business with this government with regards to asylum seekers.
April 15, 2024
Devastating. Soul crushing. Stinging, meticulously researched, intimate account of the horrors of the Kagame regime, and the lengths the West has went to to ignore them. Read it. Finish it. Sit and stare in stunned silence.
April 8, 2023
Non-fic book of the year so far. I was sorta blown away by this. It feels so comprehensive yet accessible. It intertwined modern Rwandan history and politics, while never straying from the countless (morally ambiguous) actors the book revolves around. I didn’t want it to end.
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