Rwanda-Big Steps And Small Steps

RWANDA

Big Steps, Small Steps

Rwandans, it seems, would have a lot to criticize about President Paul Kagame.

After all, their long-serving president runs an authoritarian state that suppresses anything resembling a serious opposition, wrote the Boston Globe.

But despite his flaws, when voters head to the polls on today, they will likely re-elect Kagame for a third, seven-year term anyway, and by an overwhelming margin also – it’s a reward for delivering peace and turning this once devastated country into a remarkable African success story, voters say.

Kagame has likewise already claimed victory for himself.

He said the results of this upcoming vote have been clear since 2015, when over four million Rwandans petitioned to amend the country’s constitution, enabling Kagame to seek a third term, wrote the Washington Post.

But while a Kagame victory looks all but certain, it’s less clear where he’ll be taking Rwanda going forward.

For one thing, it’s unlikely he’ll turn to the West.

Kagame has been quick to heap scorn on Western countries for meddling in Rwanda’s affairs and said it was “unacceptable” that Western diplomats summon presidential candidates, wrote the Associated Press.

But wherever he turns, Kagame will need to chart a path that maintains social peace in Rwanda between the Tutsi and Hutu, the two traditional ethnic groups whose ongoing conflict led to genocide in 1994, noted the Boston Globe.

Others warn that peace in Rwanda remains fragile despite the breath-taking progress experienced under Kagame.

For one, Rwanda’s presidential elections are shrouded in a “climate of fear” following two decades of systematic attacks by the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front on political opposition, according to a recent report by Amnesty International.

Ordinary Rwandans continue to face “huge, and often deadly, obstacles to participating in public life and voicing criticism of government policy,” said the human rights watchdog.

Critics of the government have been physically attacked or even killed in some cases, with a culture of self-censorship arising as a result, it noted.

Even candidates who are openly opposing Kagame are struggling to find their footing in the race.

The only female presidential candidate to come forward for the election, 35-year-old accountant Diane Shima Rwigara, was disqualified from running for office in early July for lacking enough valid signatures for candidacy, reported Reuters.

But there are signs of progress. Frank Habineza, the opposition leader challenging Kagame with the Democratic Green Party, will be on the ballot for the first time this year, wrote Bloomberg.

That’s a major departure from the last Rwandan elections, when Habineza had to flee to Europe in exile after his deputy was killed.

Habineza said the fact he’s competing at all this time around is a cautious step forward toward greater political freedom in Rwanda, according to Bloomberg.

And to many Rwandans, that’s already a victory in itself.

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