The 14th of July, 2015, will always be remembered as another day in infamy in Rwanda’s entire history.
In a joint session of Parliament, legislators unanimously voted to remove term limits, thus paving the way for President Paul Kagame to rule for life. This deliberate and yet fateful decision by Rwanda’s rubber stamp parliament was preceded by equally irresponsible and dangerous decision by the ruling Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) to abide by President Kagame’s will to remove the term limits. Equally cynical has been the manipulation and coercion of ordinary Rwandans to gather 3.7 million signatures demanding constitutional amendment of article 101 that will allow President Kagame to rule for life.
Following this familiar enactment and orchestration of “popular will” of the ruling party, the people and the parliament, the next logical sequence will be a referendum and 2017 elections. In both, a “landslide victory” is then inevitable to conform to the will of President Kagame. The reader is reminded that Rwanda’s both houses of legislature –celebrated abroad for having the largest number of women– are not elected by the people but nominated, either directly by President Kagame, or through the ruling party RPF which must execute his instructions. FULL STORY
