Rwanda’s Gen Kabareebe will always be remembered for Operation Kitona

On Thursday, October 18, 2018, Gen James Kabarebe, was appointed a senior presidential adviser on Security in the Republic of Rwanda. Till then, he had been serving as the Minister for Defence for about nine years.

And before that, he had been the military chief of Rwanda’s army.

As senior presidential adviser, Gen Kabarebe is clearly on his way to retirement from public life. But even with his illustrious military career, Gen Kabarebe will only be remembered for Operation Kitona.
Operation Kitona was Rwanda’s audacious commando-type special operations act whose objective was to capture Kinshasa and overthrow president Laurent Desiré Kabila. But because of the onward broader operational objective, I classify Operation Kitona as an expeditionary operation or offensive. But that’s merely academic. What is important is that Operation Kitona has been touted as a major asymmetrical military operation and now the subject of scholarship on military special operations.
Although the operation didn’t achieve its objectives, the negatives will never take away the audacity of the operation and the stardom of Gen Kabarebe. I am not a good story teller, but let me just share what James Stejstel (author, military historian and conflict archeologist), wrote about Operation Kitona:
‘Operation Kitona was an extremely risky, but potentially strategically decisive special operation. In a classic manoeuvre made up of equal parts of speed, surprise and audacity, a small force of Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) troops under the command of Col Kabarebe commandeered a civilian airliner. They flew over 1,000 miles from Goma across the Congo River Basin to seize Kitona Airfield near the Atlantic coast and then threatened to march on Kinshasa.’
Col Patrick Karegeya (RIP), Rwanda’s former director of external security (and then President Kagame’s confidant), was the man charged with the political (or security) management of the operation. Col Karegeya is said to have sought and secured the assurances of Angola’s military and security leadership: They would look the other as Operation Kitona was underway.
Unfortunately, Col Karegeya had wrongly assessed the structural organisation and management of power in Angola.

The assurances he got from Angola’s military leadership were not secured by President Eduardo dos Santos. And bang…!

Within days, the raid began to unravel as opposition came from an unexpected opponent: Angola. Although it didn’t achieve its objectives, Operation Kitona has been touted as a brilliant military operation.

The military establishment in Rwanda is said to have squarely placed the failure on the shoulders of the late Col Karegeya - if only for his poor assessment of Angola’s strategic political interests in the DRC at the time. But since Col Karegeya was later to fall out with the Rwandan political and military leadership, one is advised to treat this accusation as merely political.
Rwanda and Uganda needed Angola on their side; or at least to look the other way. Failure to secure Angola on their side could have been avoided through a better understanding of both the decision making process in Angola and regional power politics.
The UPDF contingent for Operation Kitona comprised of 31 troops under the command of Maj Frank Kyambadde (could be a colonel or a brigadier now). They were an artillery unit with heavy weapons, which Rwanda lacked (then). I have been advised not to detail the pieces they carried.
The Boeing 727 commercial liner was high-jacked in Goma and forced to fly to Kigali for refuelling (with Col Kabarebe holding the Nigerian pilot at gunpoint). For regaling his experience with Operation Kitona, Gen Kabarebe became a hit at Ingando Classes (Rwanda’s answer to Uganda’s Kyankwanzi).