Grégoire Kayibanda

Grégoire Kayibanda (1 May 192415 December 1976) was a Rwandan politician, revolutionary and military dictator who was the first President of Rwanda from 1962 to 1973. An ethnic Hutu, he was a pioneer of the Rwandan Revolution and led Rwanda's struggle for independence from Belgium, replacing the Tutsi monarchy with the First Rwandese Republic.

Rwanda became independent from Belgium in 1962, with Kayibanda serving as the country's first president, establishing a pro-Hutu policy and a de facto one-party system governed by his party, Parmehutu. He was overthrown in a coup d'état in 1973 by his defense minister, Juvénal Habyarimana, and died three years later.