Despite claims that this tragic event was the result of some kind of medical anomaly, many believed that the increasingly troublesome mwami had simply been eliminated under orders from Brussels by means of a foul assassination rather thinly disguised as a clinical "accident." This hypothesis is further strengthened by testimony from his half-brother and successor, H.M. Kigeli V Ndahindurwa, who affirms that Mutara "wanted to go to New York, to ask the UN to grant full independence to Rwanda. In Usumbura, where a replacement for his usual physician had given him an injection before the voyage, he collapsed upon leaving the medical office. Shock, infection, heart attack? We are assured that it was an accident, but I know that my brother had never been sick, and that no autopsy was ever performed."

    The Rwandan nation was devastated. Deep mourning spread throughout the land of the Banyarwanda, and the sudden and unforeseen disappearance of this great mwami, truly a shepherd of his people, struck savagely into the psycho-emotional heart of the grieving population. Equally tragic was the fact that this hero of the people had passed away with no male descendants, thus leaving the matter of the succession an open question. Thus began a race against time and circumstances, bravely sustained to ensure that the sorrowing Rwandan homeland should not fall even further under the control of the Belgian administration at this critical juncture in her history. Providence, favoring the right over the might, would supply a genuine blessing in the person of her next ruler, but his ability to positively influence events in his increasingly fragile kingdom would be tragically short-lived.