Barely Two years to the next general elections, RPF is divided and chaotic as Jeanette Kagame usurps the powers not only of the RPF but also the State Power.  We have learnt from reliable sources within the RPF Camp that all the forced resignations especially of former RPF cadres like Connie Bwiza are from the orders of Jeannette Kagame.

The frustration is showing within other members of the RPF who do not approve the Third Term for President Kagame after his constitutional mandate expires in 2017. We have further learnt that Jeannette Kagame has deployed the Minister of Health Agnes Binagwaho to spy on other RPF women especially those called the RPF historicals.

When RPF took power in Rwanda, Kagame who was then the Vice President and Minister of Defense at the time but leading from behind created elite leaders drawn from the RPF cadres especially from Ugandan exiles who had started the struggle with the late Gen. Fred Rwigyema.

Initially it was all rosy even some Rwandans who didn’t hail from Uganda exiles started learning how to speak Uganda dialects so that they could look like they came from Uganda (Abasajja). This looked like a prestige and many people loved it, being called Ugandan returnees, but all that has gone, Jeannette Kagame has accused all these elite class of women who fought alongside her husband traitors and women who have lost direction.

The likes of Col. Rose Kabuye, Mary Baine, and Connie Bwiza are being marginalized and sidelined on the orders of Jeannette Kagame using some power hungry people like Agnes Binagwaho and the master killer Gen. Jack Nziza. How times change, today, Jeannette and her Husband bestride Rwanda, something of Sun King and Queen around which all life revolves. Our reliable sources have informed us that that Jeannette has become the archetypal “iron lady, who obviously enjoys addressing the United Nations or American people under the Imbuto Foundation with lies and sugar coating of the achievements of their ruling party.

Kagame is a self-styled liberator who has delivered Rwanda from the misrule of Habyarimana and the genocidal government of Sindikubwabo.. One measure of his importance can be seen in the column inches he gets in the national press, like New Times, Rwanda Television where every Rwandan life is bestowed upon Kagame, the master of life and death in Rwanda, without him Rwanda ceases to exist.

Jeannette Kagame who rules in the shadow, retains control of the most important institution in Rwanda; the army. Her husband a military man and former spy master in Uganda, they have been careful to isolate those who offer serious opposition. They have ensured the continuing dominance of the most royal officers in the military like Jack Nziza who is the de facto Army Chief. In some ways the strength of Rwanda’s government rest on a narrow, but effective base. The situation in Burundi, where the army turned against an elected president, would be unthinkable in Rwanda.

The degree to which Kagame and those around him dominate political life in Rwanda was all too apparent back in 2010, with the push to overturn the part of the constitution which limits presidents to two terms in office; Kagame is likely to rule for life. The Rwandan constitution of 2003, like its US counterpart, restricted presidents to two electoral cycles. In Rwanda’s case the restriction was put in place to guard against the “President-for-life” syndrome that encouraged Kayibanda and Habyarimana to stay on beyond their welcome.

It is clear throughout all this second term of President Kagame that he wants to stay in power beyond 2017. Despite the continued denial, the government is planning a referendum on a return to the life presidency of Kagame. A referendum on the constitutional lift on term limits will automatically be granted as the forced signatures of the so called population are demanding it. Referendums, it should be noted, are favoured by populists as they tend to go in favour of those in power.

In all of this you begin to realise the relative powerlessness of people in Rwanda. What strikes you most when visiting places like rural areas is not only the marginalisation of poorer people, but also the lack of influence of ordinary educated Rwandans. School teachers, nurses, civil servants and business people have little say in political affairs. In part this can be attributed to the historic weakness of civil society in Rwanda, but it can also be attributed to the continuing dominance of the army and the close relationship between the government and the international community.

Jacqueline Umurungi