Can we deny that Kagame’s policies have created Apartheid in Kigali and Rwanda in General?

When President Kagame hosted the African Union many leaders praised him one by one of bringing life back to Rwanda after genocide of the Tutsis in 1994. Indeed, Kigali City has been commended as the cleanest city in the World. However,  Kigali and Rwanda is a Nation that has been divided  into two worlds, for example if you go to the famous posh area of Nyarutarama you will find two  Nations in one Nation, the Posh area with a Golf Play Club and an area locally known as  “Banyahe” literally meaning a place without Toilet.

Foreign visitors in Rwanda will never be allowed to go in those areas especially international media or just given a big envelope so that they don’t expose those areas in the international media or to the international world.

This was vindicated by the VOA Rwanda program were its journalist Eric Bagiruwubusa  reported  yesterday that people in Nyarutarama cannot afford even a meal. This is the Nation that Kagame using his doctored statistics will tell the World that poverty has been reduced to 50% yet many Rwandans go hungry or children suffer from malnutrition.

Again the Human Rights Watch has accused the Rwandan government for locking up poor people in deadly camps, the centers are harsh, inhuman and beatings are a common place. Indeed, this should be considered as a violation of international law and Rwandan laws, the only crime committed by these Rwandans is poverty, homeless, street vending or  street children.

Unfortunately, the local media cannot dare expose these failings because the regime will harshly suppress or kill them if they persist telling the truth to the World. In fact many Journalists have either been compromised or use other mechanisms by disguising as other people or just go to exile if the worse comes to the worst.

There are now nearly 2/3 of Rwandans with no hope of life, they can’t take their children to school, although the RPF regime deceives them and the World that education is free.

How can a parent take a child to school without a meal? Who buys the Uniform? The books?  And some scholastic materials that are supposed to be bought by parents but the World doesn’t know. Kagame’s regime has kept the Rwandan people and the World in the shadow of deceit.

The survey we have made has found that a clear majority of Rwandans agree that apartheid has been created in Rwanda and should be considered as a crime against humanity. It is incomprehensible that the Rwandan government has created what it accused the previous governments it was fighting before genocide.

Twenty Two years after the genocide against the Tutsis, Kagame has closed all the venues that exist in the free and democratic society. The free press and freedom of assembly are frozen in Rwanda.  Many Rwandans rarely or never raise these issues in public. The RPF regime under Kagame, meanwhile, has an official policy of democracy, freedom of assembly even is properly codified in the Rwandan Constitution but it is never put in practice.

Apart from Kigali, the Eastern Part of Kayonza has been hit hard by hunger/famine despite the fact that, that area was the bread basket of all Rwanda. It used to supply bananas and other agricultural products but the regime has made it hard for the people of that area to produce because RPF officials have been grabbing land to grow maize for the RPF industries.

Subsistence farming attributed to the survival of many Rwandans for many generations but RPF using its deceit methods , intimidation, suppression, has told the world that Rwanda is mechanising and commercialising agriculture, yet what is grown is for RPF industries consumption.

The lack of free media and the closure of the BBC Gahuza Miryango last year in Rwanda which was the only source of impartial news and information is a big blow to the Rwandan young democracy or for those who want to see democracy in Rwanda, yet the UK Foreign office seems to have succumbed to the threat of the Rwandan dictator.

How could the Rwandan government close the BBC Gahuza Miryango for a story documented by the BBC Radio TWO?  Surprisingly the UK Foreign Office and the UK Government have been very reluctant to pressure the Kagame regime on this brutal act.

In unprecedented move the UK’s Foreign Office said that it recognized “the hurt caused in Rwanda by some parts of the documentary”, but was “concerned” by the move to suspend the BBC’s FM broadcasts and hold an official investigation.

We urge the UK Government to use its financial and political influence on Kagame to flee the political space, allow freedom assembly and flee all the political prisoners like Ingabire Victoire, Deo Mushaid, but above all to allow the impendent media to freely report on issues that are in the interests of the Rwandan people but not praising the government even for bad news.

Angel Uwera.