A video of Lwengo District Chairman George Mutabazi being thrown of a RwandAir flight by security officials circulated on social media on Saturday.
Earlier reports were that Mutabazi had become a nuisance under the influence of alcohol but it later turned out that he insisted on sitting in business class yet he had an economy ticket.
In the video, Mutabazi who made a name for flogging the people of Lwengo “into sense”, is seen in handcuffs, being dragged out of the plane by no-nosense Rwandan security.
“Why are they doing this to me, I am leader. Do I deserve this really? Why is this happening to me” he is heard wailing.
Mutabazi had travelled to Burundi to attend an East African Community conference and he was in Kigali, in transit back to Entebbe.
Mutabazi has come out to tell his side of the story, saying that was asked to disembark, probably due to mistaken identity, and he resisted, causing a scuffle.
“There was a scuffle and in the process I made an alarm because I was worried. I didn’t know where they were taking me or why. The reason I made the alarm was to attract attention of my fellow passengers just in case anything happened to me.”
“When I talked to security they realised there was no problem and they gave me a ticket to another flight.
“I am back home safe, I have no problem. Please ignore whatever is going on on social media,” he said.
However, RwandAir rubbishes Mutabazi’s explanation of mistaken idendity saying
— RwandAir (@FlyRwandAir) June 24, 2017