Jean Kambanda

Jean Kambanda
5th Prime Minister of Rwanda
In office
April 9, 1994[1] – July 19, 1994
PresidentThéodore Sindikubwabo
Preceded byAgathe Uwilingiyimana
Succeeded byFaustin Twagiramungu
Personal details
Born (1955-10-19) October 19, 1955 (age 69)
Huye, Rwanda
Political partyRepublican Democratic Movement
Alma materNational University of Rwanda
OccupationPolitician, banker, and former prime minister
Criminal statusImprisoned in Mali
Criminal chargeGenocide and crimes against humanity
PenaltyLife imprisonment
Date apprehended
18 July 1997
Imprisoned atKoulikoro Prison, Mali[2]

Jean Kambanda (born October 19, 1955) is a Rwandan former politician who served as the Prime Minister of Rwanda in the caretaker government from the start of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He is the only head of government to plead guilty to genocide,[3] in the first group of such convictions since the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came into effect in 1951.

Kambanda holds a degree in commercial engineering and began his career as a low-level United Popular BPR banker, rising as a technocrat to become the chair of the bank. At the time of the April 1994 crisis he was vice president of the Butare section of the opposition Republican Democratic Movement (MDR).

He was sworn in as prime minister on April 9, 1994 after the president Juvénal Habyarimana and prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, were both assassinated. He remained in the post for the hundred days of the genocide until July 19, 1994. After leaving office he fled the country.

  1. ^ Prunier, Gérard (1995). The Rwanda Crisis, 1959–1994: History of a Genocide (Hardcover ed.). London: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 232. ISBN 1-85065-243-0.
  2. ^ "Jean Kambanda – TRIAL International". Archived from the original on 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2018-01-10.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference lat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).