Charles Muhire is a
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
n air force officer who was Chief of Staff of the Air Force before being arrested in April 2010.
Muhire was born in 1958 in
Byumba, Rwanda.
He studied at the
Mulago Teaching Hospital in
Uganda, graduating in 1979 with a higher diploma in Orthopedics and Traumatology.
He joined the army and was commissioned in 1986.
He attended the
South African Air Force Command and Staff College, and subsequently took other air force training courses.
Between 1990 and 1994 Muhire held various field commands.
From 1995 to 1997 he was the Chief of Plans, Operations and Training at the
Rwandan Patriotic Army Headquarters.
He was later appointed Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Air Force.
In July 2007 he was awarded an Order of Honour medal for his bravery and resilience in the 1990-1994
Rwandan Civil War.
In April 2010 President
Paul Kagame announced a shake-up of the military command, and a few days later ordered the arrests of Muhire, accused of corruption, and of Major General
Emmanuel Karenzi Karake who was accused of immoral conduct.
The arrests followed newspaper reports that the two men, reported to be popular and influential figures in the military, had disagreements with Kagame.
They occurred a few weeks after former Chief of Staff Lt-General
Kayumba Nyamwasa
Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa (born 1962) is a Rwandan former Lieutenant general who formerly was the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army from 1998 to 2002. He was also head of Rwandan intelligence from 1998 to 2002 and served as Rwanda's ambassador to ...
had fled to South Africa, and were immediately followed by the arrest of
Victoire Ingabire
Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza (born 3 October 1968) is a Rwandan politician and chairperson of a new political party - Development And Liberty For All (DALFA-Umurinzi) with the focus to campaign for more political space and for development. Previous ...
, who had announced that she planned to run for president in the
August 2010 elections.
Muhire was released from prison in 2011 after issuing an apology to his military superiors.
References
Living people
Rwandan military personnel
Year of birth missing (living people)
{{africa-mil-bio-stub