Ugandan police are investigating the killing of a man about 50 years old whose head was cut off, police spokesperson Kituuma Rusoke said at a press conference on Monday, 19 October. Relatives have identified the victim as Robert Kabera, a former Rwandan army sergeant major. Residents found the body in bushes at Kamengo in Mpigi district, southwest of Kampala, on Saturday, 17 October. The head has not been found, and police have no clear motive yet. Kabera is presumed to have been killed in the night of 16 to 17 October.
Kabera served in the Rwandan army and also played in its military band, according to De Morgen. He fled to Uganda in November 2020, where he registered as a refugee and said he no longer felt safe. The Rwandan army then said it had begun an investigation into him over sexual abuse of a family member, an accusation he denied and called propaganda. Once in Uganda he grew steadily more outspoken. His YouTube channel, Major Robert TV, had more than 144,000 subscribers and over 800 videos, many criticising Kagame and his administration. One song, Commander Ingabire, paid tribute to opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who spent years in prison and was arrested again in June 2025.
His brother, Victor Agaba, told AFP that three men attacked Kabera in Kampala in October 2023. The brother also said the army had brought a criminal case against him and that Kabera knew it was a witch hunt before he left Rwanda. The family said Kabera had travelled to inspect a construction site about 45 km (30 miles) outside Kampala before his death.
In a written message to BBC Great Lakes, his widow, Jeanne d'Arc Rwigema Uwizeye, said she now feared for her family's safety.
“It is scary. I feel crazy, the children and I don't have security.”
The Rwandan government has not publicly commented on the killing. Kigali has repeatedly denied any involvement when critics abroad have been killed. Patrick Karegeya, a former Rwandan intelligence chief who had helped set up an opposition party, was found dead in a Johannesburg hotel room in 2014. In 2019 South Africa issued arrest warrants for two Rwandans accused of murdering him. Telegraaf also notes that a well-known critic was killed in Mozambique in 2021, placing Kabera's death in a longer pattern of killings of Kagame's critics abroad.
Pollar is free and carries no ads in the text. Its members keep it going.
Support PollarConflicts · Kampala, Mpigi, and Johannesburg
Ugandan police are investigating the killing of Robert Kabera, a former Rwandan army sergeant major who lived in exile and criticised President Paul Kagame on YouTube. Residents found his body on Saturday, 17 October, and the head has not been recovered.
AI text based on reports by Notícias ao Minuto, De Morgen, vrtnws.be and other publishers. Published .