African Confidential Magazine
Beyond Borders With A Mission
Will Rwanda's Kagame disprove his critics?
Writing in his magazine, The Independent, almost a year ago, Uganda's
political writer and promoter of President Paul Kagame, Andrew Mwenda
says because the Rwandan leader has "little pecuniary interest in
power and no messianic image of himself", Kagame will easily retire in
2017 "Since his press engagement in Kampala, President Paul Kagame has
come under increasing attack from some people accusing him of being
unclear about his intention to retire in 2017. Kagame has previously
said people should be free to debate term limits", Mwenda wrote.
"However, he has said repeatedly he will not accept to be a
beneficiary of such a constitutional amendment. In spite of this,
critics remain unconvinced", the journalist added. Mwenda argued that
Kagame "has positioned his presidency as different from what has
happened in most of Africa." "Many of the actions he has taken set him
apart from most of his contemporaries – thus disproving the prejudices
of his critics. Therefore, nothing will validate his critics' argument
against him – that he is another power hungry African despot – than if
he were to renege on the issue of term limits" he adds.
Paul Kagame
Mwenda says he is willing to bet that come 2017, Kagame will not run
for president. First Mwenda says Kagame has not exhibited a "high
thirst for the presidency like most people in his position would
have". He cites an example of when the RPF captured power in 1994,
everyone would have expected Kagame to take over as president. He was
the general who had commanded the armies that had captured power. The
RPF mounted pressure on him to become president. He refused. Prime
Minister designate at the time, Faustine Twagiramungu, led a
delegation of all the other political parties to the Arusha Accords to
petition Kagame to be president. He still refused.
But recent events, confirmed Kagame has been re-elected to head the
country's ruling party by an overwhelming majority of 99.5 percent, to
this the critics point to a well calculated move to have the Rwandan
leader run for a third term in office. Kagame garnered 1,948 votes out
of a total of 1,957 cast by Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) delegates
during a party congress, the party spokesman Aimable Bayingana said.
«It really was an overwhelming victory,» he said. Kagame›s sole
opponent Abdul Karim Harerimana, a lawmaker at the East African
Legislative Assembly, got just nine votes.
The Rwandan president has headed the RPF since 1998. The party has no
term limits for its chairman. Kagame has effectively been in power in
Rwanda ever since the RPF, then a rebel group, took power after
ousting Hutu extremists and ending the genocide in 1994. In the
presidential polls of 2010, Kagame, praised by his supporters as an
economic visionary and criticised by his detractors for his alleged
repression of political rivals, took 93 percent of the votes. To his
opponents, Kagame is widely expected to seek a third term as president
when his current one expires in 2017 — even though the constitution
currently allows
only two consecutive terms in office.
It remains unclear if Kagame will run for another term to disapprove
his critics or remain on the country's steering wheel as most of his
party members demand.
But going back to Mwenda, other than Kagame does not know of a
successful general who wrestled power into his hands and everyone in
the country wanted him to take it and he refused – not Napoleon
Bonaparte, Fidel Castro, Samora Machel, George Washington, Hoh Chi
Minh, Yoweri Museveni or Mao Tse Tung. But this will be a story for
another day after 2017.
http://africanconfidential.com/will-rwandas-kagame-disprove-his-critics/
--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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