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A LETTER TO COL TOM BYABAGAMBA Dear Tom, Today, I write to you with a heavy heart—not simply to mourn your death, but to honor your life, your courage, your sacrifice, and the long journey you walked for Rwanda. You were born in exile into a generation of Rwandans who grew up knowing a homeland they were denied the right to call home. At a young age, you chose the life of a soldier. You joined the NRA and participated in the struggle to liberate Uganda, while carrying another dream deep inside you: that one day you would also fight for the liberation of Rwanda. That day came. On October 1, 1990, under the leadership of the late Gen Fred Gisa Rwigyema, the RPA crossed into Rwanda. You were among the young men who entered through Kagitumba on that first day. Fred fell at the beginning of the struggle. Many of your comrades would fall in the years that followed. But you continued! You fought courageously. You endured the battlefield, witnessed the loss of friends and comrades, and lived to see the victory for which so many had sacrificed their lives. For that bravery and sacrifice, thank you, Tom. Thank you for being part of the force that opened the gates of the country from which our families had been driven into exile. Thank you for helping a generation of Rwandan refugees return to the land they had dreamed of calling home again. History, however, took a painful turn. You went on to serve Rwanda at the highest levels of responsibility, entrusted with protecting President Paul Kagame. You guarded him. You served him. You demonstrated loyalty to the responsibility placed upon your shoulders. Yet in August 2014, the country for which you had risked your life became your prison. You were arrested on baseless charges, and unjustly sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment by the very government you fought to bring to power. For 12 years, your family endured the pain of separation from you. Then came August 25, 2026. Your family, after years of being denied the normal comfort of being with you, received the devastating news that you had died in prison. What a painful ending for a man who had once carried a gun so that Rwandans might return home and live with dignity. Tom, yours is one of the great tragedies of Rwanda’s unfinished struggle: you fought against one system of oppression, only to see another system of authoritarian rule rise from the victory for which you had sacrificed so much. The dream was bigger than any one leader. It was bigger than the RPF. It was bigger than any government. It was the dream of a Rwanda where no child would be denied their homeland; where no citizen would fear the state; where political disagreement would not lead to prison, exile, disappearance, or death; and where power would belong to the people. That dream remains alive. And so, Tom, as you leave us, we make you this promise: We will continue the struggle. We will continue the struggle for a free Rwanda. We will continue the struggle for a democratic Rwanda. We will continue the struggle for a peaceful and prosperous Rwanda, governed by institutions rather than individuals, where every Rwandan—regardless of background, history, ethnicity, region, or political opinion—can live freely and with dignity. We will continue until exile is no longer the inheritance of another generation of Rwandan children. And when you meet your old commander and comrade, Gen Gisa Rwigyema, greet him for us. Tell Gisa that the dream for which his generation crossed Kagitumba on October 1, 1990, is not dead. Tell him Rwanda is still searching for the freedom so many of you believed you were fighting for. Tell him that another generation has taken up that unfinished responsibility—not with a desire for revenge, but with a determination to build a Rwanda where no ruler will ever again be greater than the nation and no Rwandan will have to flee their homeland because of politics. Farewell, soldier. Rest in eternal peace.