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RWANDA: IT IS NOT ABOUT A SELF-CLAIMED ONLY STRONG LEADER BUT DIVERSITY OF LEADERS

Written by Michel MUSHIMIYIMANA

Rwanda’s recent constitutional change through the engineered referendum by the ruling party, Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), has strongly reverberated Rwandans and the international community in general. Surely, for most of the Rwandans, especially young ones, this amendment has become a nightmare as it allows the incumbent authoritarian ruler; President Paul Kagame nicknamed “The Monster” to run for life and this means a long lasting repression, persecution and injustice for Rwandans. Since 1994 when the RPF took power after a 4-years-war which shed so much blood of lives of Rwandans, headed by this man, it has been a killing machine and tragedy-maker in Rwanda as well as in the region.

Rwanda is ruled by a military feared man due to his brutal murder of anyone who tries to contest him, he is a self-claimed only capable leader of Rwanda but worst of all he is democracy / freedom-strangler and virulent oppressor of any emerging leader he fears can overtake his power in the future.

Without taking into account of the number of lives of leaders he has taken in Rwanda since his seizure of the RPF since 1990s, over the last 6 years starting from 2010; all emerging leaders mostly the young ones have been assassinated, completely disappeared, jailed and some who were lucky enough to survive were forced to exile but still hunted down.

Let us have a momentary glimpse of some of those leaders:

 

 

    

 

 

                                                                                                                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are just  a small example of the cases recorded over the last six years of horrific mass murders where thousands of Rwandans were killed, dumped in the rivers and burnt in the forests of Rwanda.

To find excuses to kill or imprison these Rwandans; journalists, human rights activists, opposition politicians and free thinker, the RPF regime concocts criminalities, insecurity and terrorism cases such as bombing Rwandans in the towns, attacking villagers with hoes, hammers and machetes. Further, they kidnap divisive people and hide them in safe houses where they are subjected to extreme torture, then link them to the concocted cases and force them to confess to the trumped up charges and if they refuse they kill you. Hence, the massive amounts of forced disappearances.

Rwanda is run under a veiled reign of terror and its leader believes in victimization and the sacrifice of Rwandans as the way of his dictatorship to last longer. That is why during the saga of changing constitution allowing this monster to cling to power for life, Rwandans knew if they did not go and line up to vote “YES” for it, he would rig the votes, scam the figures and later victimize them as usual. What happens in Rwanda is very scary and only Rwandans really know how it stings.

So, now President Kagame Paul has decided to cling to power for life because he believes he has been a good leader to rule Rwanda  after changing the constitution which he had vowed not to change ,“Our constitution is clear on term limits. I have no intention, and no desire to disrespect the constitution” said in September 2011 when asked by New African’s Magazine if he would step down at the end of this 7-years mandate which was the last term in office as it was provided by the constitution before it was changed in December 2015.

True to his character, he has now changed the constitution and he announced that he would remain in power for life. This is how all dictators who self-claim to be the only leaders capable to rule do because they have failed to reproduce other leaders who can succeed them; instead they suffocate, strangle, imprison and torment them for fear to leave power. That is what President Kagame Paul has been doing for all leaders whose views are/were different from his.

 President Paul Kagame and his clique must know that Rwanda does not need a self –claimed strong leader but the leaders, because you become strong leader by reproducing leader’s great than you. So, for the sake of Rwanda’s future, Kagame must step down in 2017, release all leaders he imprisoned and call all those he exiled and let them compete fairly, he will see how a country with diversity of leaders flourish in all domains.

 

Edited by: Jennifer Fierberg

About the Author: Michel MUSHIMIYIMANA is the exiled Rwandan Human Rights Activist / Politician; he is the Executive Director and Founder of Rwanda Youth for Leadership and Change Initiative (RY4LCI). He can be contacted at info@impinduka.com  or via website www.impinduka.com

 

 

 

 

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