In his speech to commemorate the 19th year when Rwanda was plunged in the hell on earth, the Rwandan dictator said that , at nearly two decades since the genocide happened, Rwandans need to reflect on how far they have come in building their nation, providing justice, as well as uniting and bringing development to Rwandans.

RPF DAY DREAMERS

Whereas the President might be illusioned with the buildings and some infrastructures   in his country of which 90% belong to him or his party (RPF) the majority of the people in Rwanda are still under abject poverty and cannot feed their families.  Unfortunately, the leaders in the so called opposition which in many democracies balance the power of the ruling party by challenging the government programmes, Kagame has unfortunately   muzzled all the free press and formidable political challengers by either exterminating or incarcerating them.

“Remembrance of the genocide is an obligation for every Rwandan. It is also falls on us to teach and pass on that responsibility to the youth so that they, in turn, can pass it on to successive generations”. However, it is the responsibility and obligation of the leaders to grasp what caused genocide and plan for future generations to learn from history not the politics of Kagame who says this today and tomorrow says something different.

When Deo Mushayid questioned why the language of genocide has kept changing names since 1994, the man was labeled a genocide negationist despite the fact that almost his entire family was wiped off by the Interahamwe and genocide designers.  Kagame just recently he has mentioned the word genocide against the Tutsis , he used to call it genocide,  because he  always wanted to identify himself as   a Rwandan more than an ethnic personality  in the eyes of the public and some international sympathisers . I remember in some interviews  when he was still a rebel leader and after the capture of power ,  when he was asked whether  the genocide was caused by a long-time hatred between the  Hutus and Tutsis, he smartly said that  Rwanda  is homo ethnic , meaning that Rwanda has no ethnicity, why  is he now changing the tone?

It is unfortunate that some Hutus who are single-handedly picked by Kagame for selfish interests like Rucagu, and the current Prime Minister will never raise this issue; they are in the government by mercy of Kagame but not in their right as Rwandans to serve their country. After the genocide in our country, we used to say Itsemba bwoko nitsembatsemba( genocide and mass murder) this reflected the real tragedy  that befell our country in 1994.  But these ladies and gentlemen have kept quite so that they are not either labeled   genocide ideologists or undermine their self interests.

Apparently, RPF has divided the country either knowingly or unknowingly by introducing the Fund for genocide survivors, whereas the idea is good and fundamentally  in the line of putting back the lives of the survivors from hell to life, they have ignored the  plight of the children and widows of  people who are in prisons  for the crimes of genocide.  After 19 years, the government has not put in place a programme to help the children and widows who are innocent of the crimes of their parents and husbands respectively. Indeed, these so called Hutus who would be in the government to talk on their behalf are busy eating and the rest is left “To Whom It May Concern”.  Interestingly, some few Tutsis who are brave enough to raise this issue are viewed as traitors by their fellow Tutsis or are cursed by Hutus who behind the curtains they agree as the right thing, but in the public they hesitate to support it as they will argue that it will bring them trouble and lose their posts or end up labelled genocide ideologists. If you walk on the streets of Kigali and see many government officials driving in their expensive cars and building mansions within and outside the country, it reminds me of the government officials of the former Habyarimana government and those business men affiliated to the government of the time. They could   win government contracts and in return some financial favors and political loyalty, now in just 19 years the RPF elite have forgotten the empires, power and money these men had, and all over a sudden either left them or were killed and some of their properties are now a home of government institutions.

How then will you convince a young man that he should give his neighbor peace when he/she is on the street with empty stomach?  This is not about ethnicity; in fact the problems of Africa in general are not caused by tribes or ethnicity, but rather social inequalities.  If the RPF government thinks that by picking Boniface Rucagu, Gen Rwarakabije and Pierre Damien Habumuremyi   they have solved the social problems of Rwanda, they are day dreamers.

I have assigned the RPF officials to go in the villages and on the streets of Kigali and other towns throughout the country to see how the country is vulnerable within the next few years.  Many children of genocide convictees and their mothers have nothing left in the households; indeed, the little money they have is spent on the food and school fees for those who are lucky. Whereas the government might not see it as serious problem in the short term, in the long term, it might cost the future RPF political hopefuls changes to continue their political careers.  It is therefore imperative for RPF and Kagame to reopen sincere and genuine criticisms within the party and indeed stop genocide politicisation if they don’t want to risk political polarisation within their party and the country which will consequently undermine prevention of genocide in Rwanda but also future conflicts of similar nature.

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels.