Rwanda a better place today

By Felix Mugabo

I was struck by an article in the New Vision issue of June 30 commemorating Rwanda’s 50th independence anniversary.

The article purported to give a balanced analysis of Rwanda’s progress. Instead, the author only reproduced stereotypes and prejudices and glossed over the subject without giving the reader even the basic picture of what Rwanda has gone through over the last 18 years.

I had thought that given your high professional and ethical standards, New Vision would have done a major story or a series of feature stories on this very important landmark in our national evolution.

Secondly, even if you chose to devote only a limited space to this momentous event, the choice of article was below your often high standards.

For example, the title of the article promises an answer to an important (and I admit controversial) subject: 18 years since RPF: is Rwanda any safer? One would have expected the author to refer to the building of a professional military, police and security services.

Between 1994 and 1996, the RPF integrated over 15,000 former soldiers into its ranks. Between 1996 to date, over 36,000 former rebels have been integrated and some later discharged.

Today, many of the top commanders are former soldiers under Habyarimana or former rebels against the current government. Does this integration of former combatants contribute to the promotion of stability?

It is true that 18 year later, Rwanda is still suffering from serious security problems.

However, as the author admits, many of them emanating from the Congo. It would be unfair to accuse Rwanda of Congo failures.

Congo lacks even rudimentary administrative and security infrastructure to ensure basic law and order in most of its territory. This vacuum attracts militias to fill the void. Rwanda has legitimate security concerns because of the presence of interahamwe and other extremist Hutus in eastern DRC.

Rwanda has an agreement with Kinshasa under which Rwandan troops are in eastern Congo working alongside Congolese troops to fight these rebels.

Rwanda, therefore, does not need to use proxies.

The author ignored critical policies, practices and programmes Rwanda has fostered to promote durable stability in the country. Instead, he reduced Rwanda’s destiny to the disagreement that Patrick Karegyeya, Kayumba Nyamwasa and Victoire Ngabire have with the government.

He does not show how much following these people command in Rwanda, which leads him to conclude that their presence in exile signifies any significant source of instability for the county. The first two officers have been tried and convicted of crimes while the third is before a court of law.

I would have loved to see in my favourite New Vision how Rwanda has given 98% of all citizens medical insurance; 98% of pregnant women get antenatal care at least once during their pregnancy; 97% of the children go to school and every Rwandan who needs medical evacuation to India or South Africa for a kidney or heart transplant would get it, regardless of income, status or political connections.

To ignore these highly necessary policies and focus on the voices of a disgruntled few is not good journalism.
Politically, Rwanda has an inclusive political system. For example, 55% of its parliamentarians are women. The constitution prohibits winner-take-it-all politics.

No political party can occupy more than 50% of cabinet. The speaker of parliament and the president cannot come from the same party. There is a political parties’ forum, where all parties are equally represented and decisions arrived at through consensus.

Let me assume all these political arrangements are not sufficient to ensure a stable and inclusive political process.

But they are clearly a bold effort to find a formula that can work for Rwanda. There is, therefore, no way anyone trying to analyse whether Rwanda, 18 years since RPF took power, is safe without commenting on them and showing how weak or irrelevant they are in promoting reconciliation, inclusion and participation.

Although I was initially disappointed by the article, I have since seen some good coverage of our independence anniversary.

I implore the editors to send a team to Rwanda to make an on-the-ground assessment of what has been done and how it is working or failing to work.

The writer is a social, political analyst based in Kigali, Rwanda