At the University of Kinshasa yesterday, super propagandist Patrick Muyaya told students: “Rwanda cannot deny it is part of the problem in Congo,” this wasn’t solely a blatant lie, it was full blown mockery of previously signed agreements.
Rwanda’s concerns in DRC are not new, and they come after years of Congo’s own actions, especially its decision to host the FDLR, a genocidal group, for more than 30 years. The DRC has not only given the FDLR a safe haven, it has trained and armed them, even using them in military operations with a mission to attack the country and remove the government in Kigali.
Muyaya’s twisted version of events is now part of Kinshasa’s official script. Instead of facing the real roots of the crisis, the government blames Rwanda at every turn. He speaks loudly about “foreign aggression,” but says nothing about the FDLR, nothing about the broken army, and nothing about hate speech, continuous repression of Tutsis Congolese, etc.
As usual what Muyaya has been doing is to paint Rwanda as the villain, while turning a blind eye to the facts, that is what has been blocking peace, not building it. What makes this worse is that his speech comes just few days after the DRC signed peace commitments in Doha and Washington. Those agreements were clear: stop hate speech, stop public incitement, and work towards peace. But here was Muyaya, in front of university students, doing the exact opposite. He didn’t just ignore the commitments, he violated them in broad daylight. His words only add more fuel to the fire.
Instead of teaching young people how to think critically and seek peace, he fed them a message of blame and division. Universities should not be turned into political stages for cheap talk. They should be places where truth is respected and the future is built on facts, not lies and shameful propaganda. What Muyaya did at the University of Kinshasa was not only irresponsible, it was harmful to the youth and to the region.
It has not even been three full months since the Washington and Doha agreements were signed Tshisekedi’s mouthpieces are already back to their old games. Muyaya’s performance at the University of Kinshasa was not just a breach of peace commitments, it was a clear message that the DRC government is still addicted to scapegoating.
Blaming Rwanda may win applause in lecture halls, but it will not stop the bloodshed in the east or fix the rot within the Congolese state. Peace cannot grow in soil poisoned by propaganda. If the DRC wants to be taken seriously, it must first stop lying to its own people.
ellenkampire