Paul Kagame  .Age 60. Rwanda’s strong man since 1994  . I say strong man because it is no secret that Rwanda has had no real elections since independence. So we do not have a president per say. Kagame is president in name only.

Also, as it happens Rwanda’s republican era was ushered in by a referendum that excluded the main protagonist , namely the Mwami of Rwanda Kigeli V Ndahindurwa.

 

But  back to Kagame the strong man.

He is  of Royal descent.

A General who like many Rwandans , grew up in exile .Cuban and  American trained .

He  returned to Rwanda  at the head of the RPF and is credited for  having brought stability and hardly deniable  growth at least as far as the eye can see and in terms of post war public health. One  might say that this is all thanks to the aid that poured in after the genocide. And it is . But  he deserves some credit for how it has been managed . He is certainly not innocent of starving the people of Rwanda  and using that aid money as personal wealth but he did take care of Kigali and most big cities in Rwanda as far as appearances go, in good Rwandan tradition.

 

More ever Kagame’ s fame in the Rwandan Psyche is all credited  to his repression and brutality in government .

We ve been living in Kagame’s Rwanda  for the past 24 years .

It is time for change . Not just because it is long overdue  but because we deserve better as a people. Yes we come from Chaos and we have come a long way  , no one wishes for Rwanda to fall back into chaos . But we deserve change, good change.

We deserve democracy. We deserve  freedom of speech. We deserve security that isn’t built on repression and bullying or torture.

Our politicians deserve a chance to organize  free and fair elections.

Kagame is clearly tired and sickly.

We deserve change .It is time for change.