Paradise Papers Cite Gen. Emmanuel Ndahiro and Hatari Sekoko, Confidants of Rwandan President Paul Kagame

Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Ndahiro (left) cited in Panama Papers and Paradise Papers in Rwandan President Paul Kagame's Confidant

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They loot their countries, swim in a sea of wealth and stash funds away from their empoverished homelands,  mostly in Western foreign lands, while their people are starving or dying from easily preventable diseases, and their killing squads are brutally murdering those who dare to speak up against corruption, embezzlement and tyranny.

"They" are tyrants and corrupt foreign leaders and their relatives and confidents. They come from all over the World.  Africa counts many.  After siphoning the economies of their countries, they use the loot to buy mansions, private jets, yachts, rare paintings and artworks, luxury apartments, jewelry, million dollar cars, and other expensive items in the West or hide the money through shell companies. 

Some of them were cited in the Panama Papers (see our article: Panama Papers Revelations: US Department of Justice Investigating Corruption and Blood Money). Now, most have been covered in what is known as Paradise Papers (see here).

 While activities of stashing money in fiscal paradises may not be illegal in several instances, some African dictators hide behind a legal framework with the main purpose of money laundering. Also, even if the process may be legal, it may mean "that we’re not investing as much as we should in schools, in making college more affordable, in putting people back to work rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our infrastructure, creating more opportunities for our children, ” as former US  President Obama put it;  it may be a matter of life or death in Africa.

For example,  one case highlighted by the Paradise Papers is of  two closest confidants  of Rwandan President General  Paul Kagame: Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Ndahiro and businessman Hatari Sekoko, who were also cited in the Panama Papers. According to Paradise Papers:

"Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Ndahiro is a confidant of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, having served as the president’s physician, security adviser and spokesman.He also served as military spokesman when Kagame was minister of defense from 1994-2000. Ndahiro led Rwanda’s National Intelligence and Security Services from 2004-2011. In 2015, Kagame promoted him to brigadier general"
 
The Paradise Papers show that: "Emmanuel Ndahiro became a director of British Virgin Islands company Debden Investments Limited in September 1998, the same year in which Ndahiro regularly appeared in international news as a spokesman of the Rwandan army. Debden reportedly owned a jet aircraft. At the time of his appointment, Ndahiro's listed address was a building in a commercial section of a West London neighborhood. Hatari Sekoko, a former soldier with the Rwandan Patriotic Front and now a major business executive, was the company’s owner. The company was deactivated in 2010."
 

After Panama Papers,  Paradise Papers have brought into the open what some African leaders hide behind a smokescreen of public relations.