Comedian & OAP Arrested for “Insulting” the President of Burundi

 Popular Burundi comedian Alfred Aubin Mugenzi, known as Kigingi, has been arrested for making fun of President Pierre Nkurunziza.

The comedian’s family said he was arrested on Tuesday evening at a hotel in Muramvya, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of the capital, Bujumbura, while on a promotional tour for a beer company by Burundi’s Intelligence Service

The comedian, who is also a Buja FM radio host, was being held in the intelligence service’s “dungeons” in Bujumbura, and “no-one has been allowed to see him”, a relative said.   Intelligence officers told the relative that Mugenzi was arrested “for contempt of the head of state” after a skit he performed in neighbouring Rwanda last year, in which he ridiculed football-mad Nkurunziza, showing him refusing to leave the pitch despite receiving two yellow cards.

The president who contested for and won a third term in elections last year despite viloent protests by citizens is the player-owner of Hallelujah FC where he is frequently top goal-scorer.