Maybe I would prefer to speak of a central-African hurricane because we have never experienced Spring in Rwanda. The alarming rate of the ruling elite’s manipulative dictatorship shows no exit other than the imperative need for popular uprising to advance the cause of democracy. What clearly delineates this argument is the historical context of elections in Rwanda and the point on the political continuum of unrests they have engendered.
The right thinking members of the Rwandan society, who recently experienced insignificant changes of government through fettered and unfair presidential election, believe that our citizens ought to nurture the necessity for popular uprising and advance their democratic goals to put an end to the RPF dictatorship through free and fair processes based on good governance. A cross section of our intelligentsia feel the challenges of living in a country where dissidence turns you into the enemy of the country, a country where the habit is that rival candidates are to be crushed or sent to jail to make way for President Paul Kagame’s fraudulent victory at the polls.
The propellers of the Rwandan Hurricane ought to be set in motion. Thus, the people at all levels of society should wake up to the fact that they cannot exercise their right to choose a government through elections as the clique that manages electoral processes has perfected the art of winning and ruling without the need of the people’s mandate. Despite his landslide victory at the previous election, President Kagame has actually brutalised political opposition to silence. The statistics-adoring world will be surprised to see that Rwandan people can wake up and overthrow their long serving dictator off power. But who will be the catalyst for this desired change? Who will salvage the country Rwanda in rubble before it is completely washed away?
There is no change without ultimate sacrifices. A Rwandan saying goes, “You refuse to shed your blood for the good of your country and then street dogs lick it gratis”. The rationale for the possibility of change in Rwanda is that if it could happen in the Maghreb, it surely can also happen in Rwanda. As we know the dynamics may apply differently but the underlying patterns that led to the Arab Spring are omnipresent in every district of Rwanda. Indeed, I can safely bet that in Rwanda it is only a matter of days before the seething problems of oppression explode into a people’s revolution. Factually, Kagame’s government does not have the people’s mandate to rule. Those who superficially recite election statistics to prove Kagame’s current presidency as legitimate should acknowledge that the results of elections in Rwanda are proclaimed long before we start the pretense of campaigns and going to the polling stations.
There is a certain conviction that popular uprisings cannot cause regime change in Rwanda but such naivety ought to be outgrown and look for options to get out of our political quagmire peacefully, forcefully or even brutally. All the things have been spoken and all that is left is to act. As opposition parties, we need to intertwine our forces and use the campaign charade to create awareness of the stapled democratic principles such as the violation of the Constitution, extra judicial execution of countrymen, social injustice, segregation and so forth. Time has come for popular action. The urgency of Kagame’s unprecedented crackdown on political opponents should galvanise the population into peacefully or forcefully changing the Rwandan government without waiting for the junta to top up its fascist brutality toward the dissidents. The futility of waiting for the gradual decrepitude of the RPF regime’s discredited system is that we would be embracing the danger of losing everything including our national identity and properties.
Among many other strategies to get rid of an increasingly unpopular regime, popular protests are one way through which the countrymen and countrywomen can actively participate in influencing state decisions. The street riot in the city and all over the shop; whether it is led by retailers, merchants, teachers, artisans, farmers, drivers, local people or political activists is a genuine manifestation of citizens looking for solution to their country’s governance crisis.
These riots can certainly lead to two effects: Either the RPF government will grant the people’s grievances or the same government will crash the protesters and cause the international community to intervene.
Jean Rukika
