Queen Dowager Rosalie Gicanda was killed in Butare on April 20, 1994 in the genocide against the Tutsi at the instructions of Captain Ildephonse Nizeyimana.
Nizeyimana, a military officer who worked at École des Sous-Officiers (ESO), a military training school based in Butare, instructed the soldiers to kill Queen Rosalie Gicanda at her home in Buye Village which was in front of Ngoma Commune office.
On April 20, at around 11am, a detachment of soldiers which include Lieutenant Bizimana nicknamed Rwatsi, Lieutenant Gakwerere, Corporal Aloys Mazimpaka, invaded the home of Queen Gicanda where they abducted her and six others including her mother.
They were taken from home and assassinated at Kadahokwa on their way to Nyakibanda.
Queen Gicanda was born in 1928 in the eastern region of Buganza, now in Rwamagana District, Gicanda was the first born in a family of five children. Her father, Martin Gatsinzi, and mother Mukwindigiri later relocated to Mutara area.
In 1942, Gicanda was married to King Mutara III Rudahigwa, who passed on in 1959 shortly before the country gained independence from Belgium.
When the monarchy was abolished in the late 1950s, she was expelled out of the palace by the orders of the President Kayibanda, and resided in Huye, where she lived with her mother in a modest house.
This house was abandoned by White settlers who lived there between 1940 and 1962.
Queen Rosalie rehabilitated the house increased the number of bedrooms and added a separate annex to serve various household activities.
Queen Rosalie Gicanda and her comrades lived a difficult life in this house: they were abandoned by society, they lived a life without freedom, without being visited by family or friends, and were subjected to house checks regularly. In order to ensure her safety, Queen Rosalie stopped attending catholic mass at Butare Cathedral.
She remained popular although she avoided politics and lived with discreet dignity.
On April 19, 1994, interim President Théodore Sindikubwabo traveled to Butare, a region where massacres had not yet begun, and delivered a chilling message, urging Hutus to “act.” — to start killing Tutsi.
On the following day, in the morning of April 20, 1994, a group of assassins led by soldiers from Butare military school invaded her house and abducted Queen Rosalie and others who were with her and her mother. They were assassinated.
Now her body rests in the mausoleum of Mwima, in Nyanza District next to her husband the Mwami Mutara III Rudahigwa.
Levy Gasana/ The Kaminuza Star