Paul Kagame has been elected leader of Rwanda by an overwhelming majority in Parliament
Gregory Mthembu-Salter
Major-General Paul Kagame was elected president of Rwanda on Monday by 86 people.
Kagame received 81 votes and his rival, secretary general of the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Charles Murigande, the remaining five. The electorate was the Cabinet and Transitional National Assembly, which came together to choose the new president following the resignation of Pasteur Bizimungu on March 23.
General elections in Rwanda had originally been envisaged for 1999, but were postponed last year.
Rwanda’s transitional institutions were shaken earlier this year when parliamentary speaker Joseph Sebarenzi and prime minister Pierre-Clstin Rwigema were forced to leave office, following parliamentary investigations into alleged corruption. Rwigema’s removal brought down the whole government.
Presenting the new government in mid- March, Bizimungu delivered an angry address to Parliament, accusing it of breaking the law. Shortly afterwards, he resigned for “personal reasons”. But with the threat of a parliamentary investigation into his own alleged corrupt practices looming, it seems that Bizimungu had concluded that leaving now would seem a more principled way to go.
Rwandan government sources deny allegations that Parliament has been used to target ministers who have fallen out of favour with the RPF inner circle. They point out that most members of Parliament belong to parties independent of the RPF. However, the parliamentary forum, which actually directs the anti-corruption investigations, is chaired by Murigande, who has considerable influence over its decisions.
The Rwandan government has also argued that the departure of Bizimungu, who is Hutu, and the accession of Kagame, who is Tutsi, does not, as many allege, signify a further consolidation of Tutsi control over the Rwandan state.
Officials point out that the current Secretary of State for Defence, Colonel Emmanuel Habyarimana, who is tipped to take over Kagame’s former post of defence minister, is not only Hutu but a member of the former Rwandan army (ex-FAR), which helped orchestrate the 1994 genocide.
Most observers have long regarded Kagame, who was once Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s head of intelligence, as the real power in Rwanda, so his becoming the formal head of state has surprised no one.
However, the RPF has been able previously to extract considerable advantage from having a Hutu president, since it represented, in the absence of an electoral mandate, the party’s deference to Rwanda’s ethnic make-up.
There is some debate in Rwanda about whether Kagame wanted to be the formal head of state, with some alleging a grand conspiracy to bring him to the top by stealth, and others a merely unfortunate turn of events induced by Bizimungu’s intolerance of Parliament.
After the swearing-in Kagame, speaking in Kinyarwanda, promised those gathered that he would steer Rwanda towards “durable development” based on respect for human rights and the rule of law, but did not apparently specify whether he intended to prepare the way for an elected successor.
The Rwandan government is trying to present the manner of Kagame’s takeover as proof of Rwanda’s political maturity. Certainly, there has been no coup, no bloodshed, and everything has happened according to the law. But the strong suspicion nonetheless remains that there is far more to this than meets the eye.
Now president, Kagame assumes direct accountability for the conduct of the Rwandan government. With Rwanda still suffering the consequences of the 1994 genocide, most of the population living below the poverty line, and disenchantment growing with the army’s military adventure in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kagame’s will not be an easy job.
“This is true proof of your confidence in me,” Kagame told members of the assembly, “but also a heavy load. I am counting on you to help me by lightening it.”
Rwanda’s Parliament has already brought down one government. It remains to be seen whether it will co-operate with Kagame’s.