Rwandan Opposition Parties may falter but, they are contributing to the democratization process .

The on-line The East African of Saturday 22 February, 2014 carried an article with the title ‘How will divided opposition fare against RPF in 2017’? http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Wrangles-anddivision-weaken-Rwandan-opposition-/-/2558/2217614/-/ylti6hz/-/index.html . This article was written by an unidentified correspondent therefore putting the readers at a disadvantage from knowing who the author was or his/her intentions were in writing such a simplistic, one-sided overly opinionated commentary about Rwandan politics. However, from an experienced guess the author was neither, writing from a professional journalistic stand-point nor was he/she an unbiased observer/commentator. He or she was rather a veiled promoter/propagandist of Kagame and his Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF). The article provided the reader with a lot of examples of the failings of the Rwandan opposition without context. The author, in a desperate attempt to prove he is not alone in his world view, quoted as authority, a one liner face book entry by exiled Rwandan journalist Didas Gasana, to buttress his point. ‘Fact: The Rwandan opposition parties' prime political enemy is not PK or the RPF; it is their fellow opposition parties’. Without agreeing or disagreeing with Mr. Gasana’s statement, one needs an argument behind the statement to see how he came to that conclusion but it seems the author of the EastAfrican piece was not interested in the arguments or in any details. It is indeed true that the Rwandan opposition is divided, at times inconsistent, one might argue also uninspiring, members backstabbing one another, name it –question is why? Among the Rwandan opposition you will find Rwandans with many different qualities and competencies such as former ministers, army officers, diplomats, technocrats, Doctors, lawyers, teachers, journalists, -the list is inexhaustible. The author of the said article is abusing the readers’ intelligence by painting all these people of various degrees of quality, skill and experience, as incompetent opposition. The malaise being suffered by the Rwandan opposition is neither unique nor new in the world of African opposition parties especially those attempting to dislodge a cold and calculating despot like Kagame. The Kenyan opposition went through different stages of metamorphosis before finally finding a winning formula against Daniel Arap Moi and his KANU party. Kenyan Political parties were founded and sold to the highest bidder just like you can sell an enterprise limited by shares. Opposition against Mobutu in Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo, was compromised by Mobutu and his institutionalized kleptocracy machine for decades before Laurent Desire Kabila and Alliance des Forces de Liberation (AFDL) came to the scene with foreign help. The government of Burundi today is a product of opposition forces during Pierre Buyoya’s regime which (the opposition) went through chronic divisions, infighting, and betrayals until their protracted efforts bore fruits. It was not at all easy. All these examples I have given above did not have the same level of difficulty the Rwandan Opposition of today faces in opposing Kagame’s police state. Since 1994, Kagame has made sure that no serious opposition against his regime gets established in Rwanda.

Mouvement de Democratie Republicain (MDR) the pre-eminent opposition party against late president Habyarimana pre 1994 and against RPF post 1994 was dismantled by Kagame after failing to co-opt it into a toothless opposition party the way he did with others such as PSD, PL, PSR, PDI, have only served to rubber stamp RPF one party dictatorship. New post genocide parties such as PDR-Ubuyanja of former president Bizimungu Pasteur, the Green party, PS-Imberakuri have been stomped ruthlessly with their leaders murdered, imprisoned, exiled or bought to join the acceptable opposition that never oppose. Since 1994, countless opposition figures have been killed in mysterious circumstances whether in the country or in exile. Any attempt to establish a meaningful opposition in Rwanda has met Kagame’s and his RPF’s assault of Machiavellic proportion. What Kagame’s ruthlessness has not achieved however, is to totally silence his political critics as he would wish. Thanks to the opposition’s efforts, the world now knows at least in part, the brutality of Kagame and his police state. Anyone suggesting that the Rwanda Opposition is its own enemy and only enemy is choosing a rather lazy and satirical conclusion over an analytical one. All the Rwandan politicians that have been murdered over these 20 years of RPF rule have not been murdering each other, those that are in prison over politically motivated charges such as Victoire Ingabire, Deo Mushayidi, Bernard Ntaganda, are not responsible for their own incarceration, those that are in exile and those whose citizenship was taken away at Kagame’s whims cannot be blamed for their being disenfranchised. Opposing a military dictatorship using democratic means does not come easy but with a lot of hurdles and personal sacrifice. It is a simplistic analysis which concludes that because opposition parties have one opponent, the incumbent, they have to agree amongst themselves. It is normal for opposition parties to disagree among themselves, even within themselves. Any serious opposition party has to have an ideology and a political philosophy that distinguishes it from others. It is upon this backdrop that parties formulate their policies. If RDI of Faustin Twagiramungu disagrees with RNC of Theogene Rudasingwa over the best approach to bring about national reconciliation, there is nothing wrong with it. If FDU-Inkingi stand on education is different from that of the Green party, again, in terms of politics, there is no contradiction in terms. This only means that these different political parties have real differences in terms of priorities and approach and if they were to contest elections in a free and fair environment, which Kagame is dead bent on preventing, Rwandans would have real choices to choose from depending on their interests, needs and aspirations. As for the internal squabbles within individual parties, again, this is not news-worthy and it is certainly not made in Rwanda. The Republican and Democratic parties in US are known to have both fringe and centrist factions and now and then disagreements come to the surface. This however does not prevent them from forming and leading successful governments. As I am writing this, in Uganda, the ruling National Resistance Movement party just had four of its members suspended first from party then from parliament. This is due to continued failure to reconcile views and finding compromise. Another article that appeared in the East African News Paper and which was cited by the one above was http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Rwanda-s-real-opposition--Now-you-don-t-see--nowyou-do-/-/434750/2197716/-/b6qn8j/-/index.html

This article authored by one Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is another heap of rather shallow commentary of another Andrew Mwenda wanabee. It is evident that these two authors are court jesters tapping into the lucrative business of Kagame praising. Before anyone decides to ridicule the Rwanda opposition why they cannot come together and challenge Kagame’s strangle-hold on power, ought to ask first what has happened to those that have done so in the past. How many opposition figures in Rwanda have mysteriously disappeared, or murdered and no conclusive investigation conducted? Rwanda has the world record of political opponents of the regime murdered and disappeared in a given time period. The record is even way worse than that of Idi Amin of Uganda. How come these Kagame lovers do not ask him this ‘coincidence’ that disagreeing with him equals short cut to one’s death, prison or exile? The gang of four former RPF leaders; Kayumba, Karegeya, Rudasingwa and Gahima were sentenced in absentia by a military court to sentences ranging between twenty to twenty five years in prison. The ‘crime’ is ‘disobedience’, ‘misconduct’, ‘causing’ ‘financial loss’. Former presidential aspirant Dr. Niyitegeka is languishing in prison and the crime is daring to challenge Kagame in a 2003 presidential election. Faustin Twagiramugu, the other contender in the same elections, escaped by a whisker and run to Europe. The process of arresting him was in the works. Former president Pasteur Bizimungu was sentenced to 15 years in prison for speaking out against human rights abuses by Kagame and his clique. When somebody like one Golooba states with a straight face that he frequently travels in the country side and all is well and that people speak freely without fear of state agents lurking in the shadows, is pure nonsense. It leaves to question which country side he is referring to? It is every one’s right to approve of anybody therefore it is Golooba’s democratic right to like Kagame however, Mr. Golooba does not have the right to make up facts. The East African newspaper should not allow its pages to be abused by political propagandists in the name of journalism. Does Kagame bare any responsibility for all the murders and disappearances that have occurred under his leadership which dates from RPF bush days? Is somebody responsible? If yes, who is it? Does Rwandans deserve to know who kills all kagame and RPF political opponents? How come in a country of eleven million people there is not one opponent of Kagame’s regime walking freely the streets of Kigali or Butare or Gisenyi? When tracking a serial killer, an investigator looks into mainly two things; one, the pattern of the victims’ death and two, what the victims have in common. For the case of Rwandan politicians that have been killed whether they were members of RPF or other parties, whether they were in Rwanda or beyond boarders, they all dared to challenge Kagame and his system and were being seen as a threat to Kagame’s power. Out of all the five East Africa Community member states, Rwanda is the most dangerous for opposition figures and their families. This is the main reason the real opposition is based out of the country for fear of being murdered or imprisoned just to silence them. The reality in neighboring countries is different: In Uganda for instance, DP, UPC, and FDC politicians criticize and oppose the government and its leader and walk the streets without any fear that they will be shot.

In Tanzania it is a similar situation –no politicians from CUF, CHADEMA, are preoccupied by their safety from government armed operatives. In Kenya, the presidential campaign violence notwithstanding, political opponents of the regime are not ‘wanted’ but free men and women. Rwanda is indeed at a crossroads. For those who care about truth and facts know by now that Kagame and RPF are not what we were told or thought they were. From declassified intelligence of different countries and UN reports that had earlier been suppressed and shelved but recently surfaced, we find that Kagame and RPF are not the liberators who saved Rwanda from Genocide. As hard as it is to swallow after twenty years of make-believe fiction, the real difference between RPF/A, and Interahamwe is that RPF/A won the war and Interahamwe lost it. Had it been the other way around, Kagame and RPF would be in Arusha docks for assassinating two sitting presidents and their entourage, systematic massacres of Hutu population across Rwanda, crimes against humanity, war crimes, human rights crimes, name it. No one should be surprised that RPA (RDF) under Kagame’s command has killed way more people than the interahamwe ever did. There are people who love stories with romantic good endings even if those stories are full of fallacies and non-existent heroic feats. Such is Kagame’s and RPF’s story. Kagame is less of a hero and more of a villain in the Rwandan political story. Heroes tend to sympathize and empathize with victims and they care, while villains enjoy the misery of others and they are deceitful and they want to win at all costs and they don’t care. ‘I don’t care’ and ‘I don’t give a damn’ are two of Kagame’s catch phrases. There is a myriad of people out for various and different considerations have made it their mission to propagate the RPF lies. Lies however much they are repeated, do not turn into truths and so, Kagame cloak will one day be removed and the truth will shine. Question is which side of history will you be? The tension that has been building in Rwanda due to the suppression of the freedoms that citizens elsewhere take for granted, will give way in one form or another. It might be in the way Congolese got rid of Mobutu, in the way Ugandans got rid of Amin, Liberians with their Samuel Doe and more recently Charles Tailor or, in a completely different way but one thing is for sure –change will come to Rwanda and Kagame and his gang will be shoved. It is only a matter of time. So, instead of powering scorn on those Rwandans who sacrifice their all to give their compatriots a glimmer of hope, we must appreciate the sacrifice they make at a very personal cost. Deo Lukyamuzi, Montreal, Canada. [email protected], + (514)993 6904