Rwanda: Fall of Senate president calls for rethink of the political process
The allegedly forced resignation of Dr Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo as the president of the Rwandan Senate shows the failure of the current political experiment ushered in after 2003. Nevertheless, those who dragged him to the chopping board have explained it as an example of the strength of the political system the country is run on. That it is politics of accountability in action!
Possibly, Ntawukuriryayo was forced out after doubts arose in regard to whether he could still remain one of the faces of the so-called consensus politics but at the same time beholden to a ruling elite in which he is an outsider, who must always be watched lest he deviates. Ntawukuriryayo was, in the real sense, a senate president by accident. After collecting a miserable 5.15 per cent in the 2010 presidential elections and despite belonging to the Social Democratic Party (PSD), he was appointed to the senate by President Kagame, the chairman of RPF and his “opponent” in the presidential election. It is as a result of this that Ntawukuriryayo ultimately became president of the upper House.
Avoid humiliation
Therefore, Ntawukuriryayo as a senator appointed by the RPF leader was always going to either represent the ruling party and its leader, whatever the position he got in the Senate, or, if he did not, his position would be untenable given the composition of that House. There are also some people who say that, since Ntawukuriryayo is from PSD, that is what he represented in his position as senate president and even senator.
They are mistaken: The nature of his appointment is why RPF honchos can sit in their Kimihurura offices and decide to disappoint him since they had appointed him in the first place. With the majority of senators signing the petition against him, Ntawukuriryayo certainly realised that he had to avoid the kind of humiliation and drama that was faced by previous leaders — such as former president Pasteur Bizimungu and speaker Sebarenzi Kabuye, who, on paper, held high political offices while power lay elsewhere.
It is RPF luminaries such as Tito Rutaremara and Chrysologue Karangwa who really represent the powers that be without doubts about them in that senate. And were they not pushing for his fall! If the accusations against Ntawukuriryayo are anything to go by, it is obvious that he was uncomfortable in a position where he could not exercise free will and authority.
Therefore, there is a need to re-evaluate the current political arrangement. The Ntawukuriryayo saga shows how an important head of a legislative body can be indirectly appointed by the head of the executive. The senate is hardly rooted in the people. It does not represent the national reality, if that is the purpose for which it was created. Besides, if we are to use the presidential elections to gauge one’s popularity, Ntawukuriryayo scored dismally in a presidential election.
If I may ask, how can one really then hold the number two position in the country with such miniscule support nationwide? FULL STORY