Dominique Mbonyumutwa


Dominique Mbonyumutwa was a Rwandan politician who served on an interim basis as the first President of Rwanda, from 28 January to 26 October 1961, following the abolition of the Rwandan monarchy. He took over by overthrowing the monarchy under King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa and declaring Rwanda a republic, resulting in the 1961 referendum.
Mbonyumutwa was of Hutu ethnicity and was respected by the population both before and after his presidency. On 1 November 1959, while serving as a sous-chef, he was assaulted by a group of Tutsi youth in Byimana in Southern Province. This incident triggered the "social revolution" of November 1959, which eventually brought down the monarchy while driving hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Tutsi into decades-long exile.
Mbonyumutwa was succeeded as president by Grégoire Kayibanda a few months before Rwanda's independence. After his presidency, he maintained a position in Rwandan politics by serving as Vice President of the Rwandan Court of Appeals and held an honorary position as Chancellor of National Orders in the service of the subsequent president Juvenal Habyarimana. He died in July 1986 in Belgium and was buried in Gitarama Stadium, the site where the Republic was proclaimed in 1961, as a recognition to the country. In 2010 his remains were exhumed and reburied in a public cemetery due to the plans to redevelop the stadium.