Rwandans are the sole custodians of their decisions, and choosing a leader is one of those
Uganda-based tabloid, Newz Post has run a biased blogpost titled “Rwanda without Kagame: Will he live by his word & retire in 2024?” in which it publicized renowned anti-Rwanda figure David Himbara’s single-sided, sycophantic analysis.
First and foremost, the continuity or discontinuity of President Kagame’s presidency is Rwandans’ call to make not foreigners’ or convicted criminals and members of terror groups like Himbara who ran away from accountability.
It’s important to remind News Post-Uganda, that President Kagame didn’t want to be the President right from the onset. In July 1994 after The Genocide Against Tutsi, everybody thought Maj Gen Kagame would become President as a man who had just, successfully, led the Rwanda Patriot Army-RPA that liberated the country from the hands of Genocidal regime. However Kagame turned down the offer, decided to concentrate on his new roles as Vice President and Defense Minister.
The current Head of State took over after the resignation of the sitting President as per provisions of the then national constitution. This is where News Post, further, got the facts wrong, in the previous elections of 2017, President Kagame didn’t have intentions to rerun for office, he was ready to step down to pave way for another candidate either from the ruling party-Rwanda Patriotic Front, RPF-Inkotanyi or other opposition political parties.
However, Millions of Rwandans from all walks of life, who benefited from President Kagame’s pro-people governance, policies protested his retirement decision and asked him to rerun for presidency. This is on record; over four million Rwandans through various channels wrote the Parliament demanding for the amendment of Article 101 in the constitution. Lawmakers conducted nationwide consultations, a referendum was held in 2015 which saw the majority voting in support of term limit change thus allowing President Kagame to rerun.
All in all, Rwandans are at the forefront of running their affairs before anybody else, if they choose President Kagame as their leader that’s it regardless of the much-politicized term limits, constitutional amendments; not even defamatory media propaganda will change a thing.
Thoughts of a concerned citizen.
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