The former Rwandan sergeant was found decapitated near Kampala. This assassination reignites suspicions about the persecution of Paul Kagame’s opponents beyond Rwanda’s borders.
A former Rwandan soldier who had sought refuge in Uganda, where he had become a vocal critic of the Rwandan regime, was found decapitated near Kampala. Robert Kabera, a former Rwandan sergeant, fled to Uganda in November 2020, where he was registered as a refugee, according to his brother, Victor Agaba.
Initially not very critical while still serving in his country’s uniform, he had gradually hardened his stance against Paul Kagame ‘s regime , notably denouncing human rights abuses. Kigali has not officially commented on Robert Kabera’s death.
On his YouTube channel, Major Robert TV, followed by 144,000 people, the former soldier had notably composed a song entitled “Commander Ingabire”, in reference to the Rwandan opposition figure Victoire Ingabire , a rare critical voice against President Kagame who has already spent years in prison and was arrested again in June 2025.
“Witch hunt”
Ugandan police are investigating “the murder of a man, approximately 50 years old, whose head was severed and whose body has not yet been found,” said spokesman Kituuma Rusoke at a press conference on October 19. “His relatives identified Robert Kabera as having no problems with anyone. (But) there have been previous attempts on his life, notably in October 2023 when three men attacked him in Kampala,” according to his brother.
In a letter sent in May 2026 to the Ugandan Prime Minister’s Refugee Commission, Robert Kabera had requested to be relocated to Uganda , arguing “continued insecurity” due to two attempted kidnappings of which he was a victim and the abduction of his second wife in November 2022, who “remains missing.”
“Our problem comes from our own country,” Rwanda, explained the victim’s brother. “The army fabricated a criminal case against him. It was a witch hunt, and he knew it before fleeing to Uganda.”
Shortly after he left the country, the Rwandan army declared him a “fugitive,” and military prosecutors claimed he was involved in a case of child abduction. He has always denied the allegations.
Numerous other cases of assassinations
Robert Kabera is not the first Rwandan opposition figure in exile to have been assassinated. In 2021, a former Rwandan army lieutenant, Revocant Karemangingo, was shot dead in Mozambique, where he had lived since 1994 and from where he was suspected of secretly supporting the opposition in Rwanda.
Also in 2021, a leader of a Rwandan opposition party, Seif Bamporiki, was shot dead in South Africa , where Patrick Karegeya, former head of Rwandan intelligence and former close associate of Paul Kagame – of whom he had become a fierce opponent – had already been found strangled to death in a hotel room in 2014.
Another Rwandan exile, former general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, co-founder of the Rwandan National Congress (RNC) with Karegeya, has survived several assassination attempts.
The head of the Ugandan army, Muhoozi Kainerugaba , son of President Yoweri Museveni, whose succession he seeks and who is accused of multiple human rights abuses, regularly proclaims his attachment to Paul Kagame on X.
