James Kabarebe James Kabarebe ( also known as James Kabare and James Kabarehe ) ( born 1959 in Rutshuru , Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo , DRChttp : / / www . militaryhistoryonline . com / 20thcentury / articles / kitona . aspx ) is a Rwandan military officer who has served in the government of Rwanda as Minister of Defence since April 2010 . He served as a Rwandan Patriotic Army Commander and was an Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo strategist . Early life and education . James Kabarabe was born in 1959 . He attended Makerere University , where he received a bachelor of arts degree in economics and political science . He was commissioned in 1989 . He married Espérance Mudenge with whom he has three children . Rwandan Patriotic Army . Then at the rank of colonel ( later he became general ) , James Kabarebe was the private secretary and aide - de - camp ( ADC ) of major - general Paul Kagame . During the liberation war of the genocidaire government , he became Commander of the High Command Unit at Mulindi . Later , this unit became the Republican Guard under Kagame ' s leadership . First Congo War . During the First Congo War , Kabarebe was the commanding officer of a Rwandan - led army that crossed into the Zaire ( now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ) to defeat the ex - FAR and Interahamwe , Hutu militia groups that had committed the Rwandan genocide and were engaged in cross - border attacks on Rwanda . This war eventually spread across Zaire . As chief military strategist in Laurent - Désiré Kabila ' s rebel Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo ( ADFL ) , Kabarebe helped engineer the capture of Kinshasa , the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , on May 17 , 1997 , and the defeat of Mobutu Sese Seko . At the end of this mission , he was appointed chief military by Kabila . However , around July 27 , 1998 he was dismissed from this post and made a military advisor and replaced by General Célestin Kifwa , who had previously served in the Angola . Second Congo War . In his time as chief of staff , the 10th division , stationed in eastern Congo , began adding more Banyamulenge , Banyarwanda and ex - FAR troops who tended to oppose Kabila . Following his dismissal as Chief of Staff in July 1998 , Kabarebe landed in Kitona ( DRC ) on August 4 , airlifting with him around 1 200 RPA soldiers . His troops advanced quickly , having taken the main strategic points in North and South Kivu within two days . On August 6 , political motives of the rebellion were described : " This is not a struggle of the Banyamulenge or a struggle of the Rwandese , it is a struggle of the Congolese people . " However , rebel uprisings in Kinshasa were put to a quick end . On August 16 , the rebellion was officially announced as the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie . Rwandan Defence Forces . In October 2002 , president Paul Kagame appointed James Kabarebe to the position of chief of defense staff of the recently formed Rwandan Defence Forces ( formerly Rwandan Patriotic Army ) . Genocide / Justice . Kabarebe is one of ten Rwandan officials accused in 2006 by Jean - Louis Bruguière , a French judge , of having taken part in the shooting down of the plane of then - president Juvenal Habyarimana . The move is a controversial one , as France is accused of also having participated in the genocide that killed almost one million people . Kabarebe and other senior official have denied these claims . Kabarebe is also cited in the United Nations ' s Mapping Report on Congo for the genocide of Congolese and Rwandans during the First & Second Congo War , alongside Paul Kagame .