Do Not Disturb

A new book from the award winning author of In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz, Do Not Disturb explores the controversial career of Paul Kagame and the legacy of the Rwandan genocide

Opinions on Paul Kagmae tend towards the extremes. At one end stand admirers of the Rwandan President who praise him for ending a genocide, preaching ethnic reconciliation between Hutu and Tutsi and constructing an African development model on the smouldering embers of a state. These admirers include Bill Clinton, Tony and Cherie Blair and Bill and Melinda Gates.

At the other sit those who hold Kagame responsible for the downing of the presidential jet that triggered the genoicde and who maintain his Rwandan Patriotic Force (RPF) carried out what amounted to a second genocide when its fighters invaded Rwanda and the eastern DRC. Kagame, they say, has established an authoritatian regime no better than the one it replaced, which jails the oppostion, does not tolerate a free press, systematically undermines neighbouring regimes and uses targeted assassination to eliminate its enemies.

Do Not Disturb is the vision of those who knew Kagame best: former aides, friends and confidants, now alienated and in fear for their lives. It tells the story of a rebel movement born in exile, whose ambitious young leaders first toppled the Ugandan government of Milton Obote before toppling that of Rwanda. The story of how a man viewed by his contemporaries as the runt of the litter emerged as a ruthless compination of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Coriolanus and Macbeth. None of the players in this drama are heroes, all have blood on their hands, but some are more sinister than others.

Do Not Disturb is an account of how the quest for power goes sour, as what started out as noble and idealistically sincere turns vindictive and viciously personal.