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Rwanda’s opposition parties have three years to stop wrangling and put their house in order or stand no chance of competing with the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front in the 2017 presidential polls. Last week, the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), one of the most prominent of the opposition groups in exile, was rocked by the resignation of one of its senior members, Dr Paulin Murayi and his wife Winnie Kabuga, who quit and started their own party.
In addition, meetings bringing together Rwandan opposition groups in Europe, which were organised by former prime minister Faustin Twagiramungu, were marred by divisions, with some agreeing to attend while others refusing to do so. Mr Twagiramungu said he called the meetings in Brussels in a bid to bring together the Rwandan opposition to form a united front to discuss the way forward for the country.
“It is time the Rwandan government talked to all sides to ensure that an ultimate solution for the political problems in Rwanda is arrived at. If they are not ready to talk, we are set to use other means,” Mr Twagiramungu said in an interview. In the series of meetings that took place on February 1 and 2 and February 15, Mr Twagiramungu sought to persuade Rwandan opposition groups to push for talks with Kigali.
The former prime minister runs the Rwanda Dream Initiative (RDI) Rwanda Rwiza, which recently formed an alliance with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel group made up of Hutu militias accused of committing the Genocide against the Tutsi, and a faction of PS Imberakuri.
Didas Gasana, an exiled Rwandan journalist and political analyst, pointed out that Rwandan opposition parties’ prime political enemy is not President Paul Kagame or the RPF, but one another. FULL STORY |
