In this and previous issues of The Rwanda Focus we have been reporting the story of an American called Jared Miller and the problems he and his organizations (first an NGO called Sisters of Rwanda and now a company called Keza) have run into in Rwanda.  

In 2007 Miller published a brochure in the US alleging that sex slavery is an accepted part of Rwandan culture. He even posted it on the website of Sisters of Rwanda. This naturally caused indignation and outrage in Rwanda.

The Gender Ministry recommended that Miller and Sisters of Rwanda be bundled out of this country for defaming the country. The Ministry forwarded the case to Prosecution where it is now.

The Minister of Gender Jean d’Arc Mujawamariya ordered Miller to publish an apology in the newspapers refuting everything he published in his brochure and on the website about alleged sex slavery in Rwanda.

The Immigration and Emigration Department of Rwanda declined to give Miller a work permit and declined to give him a visa to stay in the country until he cleared his problems with the Gender Ministry and the Prosecution.

But the problems with Immigration came about despite a promise by Minister Mujawamariya (according to what Miller told us) that she would write him a letter of exoneration to allow him and his NGO Sisters of Rwanda go on operating if he apologized.

Miller did write a letter of apology that was published in The New Times on 22 November 2007, and he took down the website of Sister of Rwanda.

In the course of our reporting on the activities of Miller and Sisters of Rwanda we asked him why (in an article we headlined Jared Miller’s Keza in The Rwanda Focus issue of August 24-30) he had written the slander that sex slavery is an accepted part of our culture.

Miller explained to us that what he wrote actually was translations from a lady called Margaret Karara he used to work with who, it turns out, thought that to get as much assistance from foreigners like Americans or Europeans as possible you have to tell only the most harrowing stories about Africa.

Sisters of Rwanda got women out of prostitution in Migina and surrounding slums as well as poor women who used to eke a living hawking fruit out of baskets, and equipped them with skills including making beads out of paper material. We talked to a number of them and that is what they told us.

It was the words of some of these women that Miller intended to publish in a brochure for distribution in six churches in Nashville, Tennessee.

Miller contends it was his ignorance as a newcomer to Rwanda; his naivety that caused him to believe everything Karara was translating only to learn afterwards that she had been mistranslating all the time.

Late last week Prosecution questioned Jared Miller for a day and a half about his activities. We find it strange that it has taken those gentlemen over two years to do that.

Now Miller seems to have lost courage to go on helping the poor women he has been helping who now are under a cooperative called Uburanga.

These are women we visited. They have a skill thanks to the work of Miller. They make beads and the man helps market them in America. Some of these women now make as much as Frw 300,000 per month. No less a person than Janet Nkubana of Gahaya links vouches for this.

The problems of Miller with our government stem from a monstrous misunderstanding. The man has not written a bad word about this country since he took down his website in 2007. A simple Google search will reveal this.

If this country can forgive former Interahamwe militias who were involved in massacres, rape and other acts of Genocide, surely the Ministry of Gender can forgive an American helping a few women, some of them survivors or victims of the Genocide, to pick up pieces of their lives.

Oh, and here is one last thing for some of our authorities to chew on: all these women when we talked to them told us that among other things Miller’s organization does is pay Mutuelle de Sante for them and pay school fees for their children.

Minister Mujawamariya told us she still thinks Miller is using the women for personal gain. But she is not sure about that.

In any case it is possible for some people in this world to act purely out of a motivation to do good.

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Prosecution grills American over Gender Ministry accusations