Ian Kagame, the son of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a second lieutenant in the Rwandan Defence Forces (RDF), has joined the elite Presidential Guard in the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF).
The presidential guard is the army unit that guards Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame and his family.
Ian, appeared publicly for the first time taking on his new assignment at the Annual National Prayer Breakfast held last Sunday.
The annual event was attended by President Kagame, Rwandan government dignitaries and clergy.
Ian, who is President Kagame’s third born, joined the elite guard three months after he was commissioned as a cadet at the Rwanda Military Academy.
Pictures of him keeping an eye on his father and his surroundings during the prayer breakfast have gone viral.
In August last year, Lieutenant Kagame graduated from the United Kingdom’s Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
He was one of three Rwandans who graduated from the prestigious academy’s class of 2022.
The following month he graduated from the Rwanda Military Academy in Gako, Bugesera District, to become an RDF officer.
Lieutenant Kagame joins a long list of children of heads of state who have been thrust close to power through the military.
In Zimbabwe, Captain Sean Mnangagwa, son of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is a member of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA)’s Presidential Guard.
In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni’s son, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba is the commander of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces and a candidate to take over from his father.
Also, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), during the late president Laurent-Désiré Kabila’s reign, his son and eventual successor, Joseph Kabila trained at China’s National Defence University.
Joseph was chief of staff of the land forces as a major general until his father’s death after which he took over power.
