PRESIDENT KAGAME LINKED TO MISSING SOUTH AFRICAN MAN IN RWANDA.

Kigali, RWANDA:

Leon Orsmond, a South African advertising executive, has ”disappeared” in Kigali, Rwanda. He has not been seen for about a month. Leon has been living in Kigali for about eight years, running an advertising business.

Leon Orsmond.

It is not rocket science to figure out what might have happened to Leon, because of the following two reasons:

First, Leon was outspoken on Twitter and Facebook about Kagame and lack of freedom of speech in Rwanda.

Second, Leon ran Diane Rwigara’s social media campaign before she was blocked from running for Rwandan presidency — and later thrown in jail along with her mother, Adeline Rwigara.

Diane Shima Rwigara is a Rwandan businesswoman and women's rights activist who stood as an independent candidate in the Rwandan presidential election, 2017 .

Leon Orsmond was putting the final touches to a book that was critical of the Rwandan state‚ according to the statement.

His disappearance was reported to Rwandan and South African authorities by his cousin‚ Digby Orsmond‚ who lives in the UK‚ and his stepdaughter‚ Chelsey May. There has been no official confirmation of his arrest or detention.

“It is believed that Mr Orsmond had been living illegally in the country after both his passport and visa had expired some years ago‚” the statement read.

May said her stepfather’s last post on social media was on February 17 and that she became concerned about a week later when she had heard nothing from him. They had had regular contact‚ she said.

May claimed that Orsmond was arrested at his home in Kigali by security forces not reporting to the Rwandan National Police. When May contacted Orsmond’s landlord‚ from whom he had been renting a room for years‚ the landlord denied knowing Orsmond.

Officials from SA’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation were liaising with their Rwandan counterparts‚ but neither had commented‚ the statement said.

Orsmond was a freelancer in Rwanda. During his advertising career in South Africa he worked for various agencies‚ including Leo Burnett‚ Ogilvy and Bernstein Loxton Golding & Klein.

In recent years, most well-intentioned expatriates who join the cause of Rwandan opposition leaders end up in deep trouble at the hands of the Kagame brutal regime.

Some Rwandan experts recall the case of Peter Erlinder, an American law professor who, in 2011, sought to help the Rwandan opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza. Erlinder nearly died in Kagame’s dungeon. Pressure from the Obama Administration led to his release.

American law professor Peter Erlinder and Rwandan presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza together at Erlinder’s June 14 2011 bail hearing. She was under house arrest and he was in prison after traveling to Rwanda to defend her.

Image: Rwanda News Agency.

Experts also suggests pressure from South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa will free Leon Orsmond. And Ramaphosa has something Kagame badly wants – the reopening of South Africa’s consular services in Rwanda.

SOURCE:
The Rwandan.

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