Drum – 15 August 2019

toenrolina securitycoursetohelphim

getstarted.

Kennedyfinishedthecourseandwas

abletofindemploymentata security

companyinFourways.

AtjustR700a monththepaywasn’t

great.But,determinedthatthejob

wouldjustbea steppingstone,hesaved

R300toregisterfora part-timelawde-

greeatUnisa.

Whileattendinga commemorationof

theRwandangenocideattheembassyin

Pretoriain2001,hecaughta luckybreak.

Hestartedchattingtoa diplomat,who

wassotouchedbyhisstorythatit land-

edhima job.

Oncehewasworkingattheembassy

asa securityguard,hewasabletoenrol

attheUniversityofPretoria.

Hewouldattendclassesbetweenhis

shiftsandduringhislunchbreaks.It was

allgoingwelluntiloneofhisformer

armysuperiorsarrivedattheembassy

spreadacrossthelawfaculty and various

people started pitching in to give him

groceries, clothes and other assistance.

I

T WAS a proud moment when Ken-

nedy completed his degree in 2005.

He joined a Pretoria law firm and

completed his articles two years lat-

er, going on to attain his master’s in

international law.

In 2010 he opened his own practice,

Kennedy Gihana & Associates, special-

ising in international human rights law,

commercial law, immigration, divorce

law and third-party claims.

It was also around this time that he

married his wife. She’s also from Rwanda

but they met here while he was still stud-

y^ ing.

For security reason he asks us not to

reveal the names of his wife and their

kids. Even though he’s been in SA for over

two decades he’s still wary.

“Because I’m so vocal and because I

represent many of those people who are

victims of those generals who are ruling

in Rwanda, I’m a target,” he explains.

In 2012 veteranjournalistJacques

Pauwwrotea book,RatRoads,about

armysuperiorsarrivedattheembassy Kennedy’sincrediblejourney.

oneday.

He instantlyrecognisedKennedyand

promptlyhadhimfired.

Withnoincome,he was

soonhomelessagain.

“Itdidn’t dis-

courage me. I

knewthatI couldould

go tothelibrraryandthen

at nightwheen theother

students wenttoresi-

dence,I woulldsleepthere

at mydesk,”hhe says.

Whenuniiversityoffi-

cialsfoundoout about his

plight,theyweresympa-

theticandaarrangedac-

commodatioon forhim.

Newsquickly

Kennedy sincrediblejourney.

Thebookinspiredtherecentdocu-

mentaryofthesamename.

But Kennedyinsistshe’s notoutfor

fameorglory. Hejust

wantshisstorytooffer

hope toothers– andnot

just refugees,but also

SoSoututhhAfAfriricacansns.

“IfI coulddoit,what

wouldstopa citizenofthis

beautiful country?” he

says.“Youcan’ttellmethat

with yourofficialSouth

AfricanID you cannot touch

thesky.”

Kennedyathisgraduation

afterreceivinghismaster’s

degreeininternationallaw.

‘If I could do it,

what would stop

a citizen of this

H beautiful country?’

E’D had to learn to fend for

himself from an early age.

His mom is Rwandan and

his father was Burundian of

Rwandan origin. Kennedy

was born in Burundi.

When political unrest flared up in Bu-

rundi, the family moved to Uganda. By

this point his dad had passed away and

he was largely raised by his grandparents

while his mom tried to keep things to-

gether.

“It wasn’t easy,” he recalls. “When

you’re a refugee or you’re an immigrant

from another place, you have to start

from zero.”

Kennedy worked on a banana planta-

tion and coffee farm to pay his school

fees.

He moved to Rwanda at the end of

1991 but with tensions rising there, he

was soon recruited to the army. At

around the age of 19 he was in the Rwan-

dan Patriotic Front, trying to put an end

to the genocide taking place in the

country.

But by 1996 he’d had enough of fight-

ing. He’d lost his sister and grandparents

in the brutal civil war and he couldn’t

take anymore. So when the country’s

president, Paul Kagame, ordered his sol-

diers to fight in the Republic of Congo,

Kennedy dug in his heels and refused to

go. This act of defiance landed him in hot

water and he was branded a traitor.

“I knew that if I didn’t leave there, I

would die,” he says.

In January 1998 he left on foot with his

matric certificate wrapped in plastic,

tied to his body with banana rope. His

epic six-month journey saw him walking

through Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi and

Zimbabwe.

In Malawi he made a friend who gave

him $100 (then R500) to help him along

his journey. This came in handy when he

had to pay a bribe to get across the Zim-

babwean border into South Africa.

With the money left over, he boarded

a bus to Johannesburg. It was the only bit

of the journey he didn’t do on foot.

In June 1998 he arrived in Hillbrow.

“It was the first time I saw tall build-

ings and lights,” he recalls. “I was just so

excited, I didn’t even care where I was

going to sleep.”

He spent two months living on the

streetsbeforemeetinga Kirundi-speak-

ingcigarettevendor.Theybondedover

theirsharedlanguageandtheman

offeredKennedya placetostayandR

NEWS

http://www.drum.co.za 15 AUGUST 2019 | (^19)
SUPPLIED