Women to rule Rwanda parliament

[WembeMkali]

Rwanda already holds the world record for highest proportion of female MPs

Rwanda will be the first country where women will outnumber men in parliament, preliminary election results show.

Women have taken 44 out of 80 seats so far and the number could rise if three seats reserved for the disabled and youth representatives go to females.

Rwanda, whose post-genocide constitution ensures a 30% quota for female MPs, already held the record for the most women in parliament.

The ruling party coalition won 78% of seats in Monday's vote.

Indirect elections for women's quota seats took place on Tuesday and votes for two youth representatives and a disabled quota seat are taking place on Wednesday and Thursday.

It is the second parliamentary elections since the genocide of 1994 when some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days.

President Paul Kagame was instrumental in establishing the Tutsi-led 's Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) - the rebel force which took power and ended the genocide.

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the capital, Kigali, says the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party have conceded defeat.

In the outgoing parliament, 48.8% of MPs were women - the world's highest rate. It is now set to be at least 55%.

Women who stood in seats reserved for female candidates were not allowed to represent a party.

"The problems of women are understood much better, much better by women themselves," voter Anne Kayitesi told the BBC's Focus on Africa.

"You see men, especially in our culture, men used to think that women are there to be in the house, cook food, look after the children... but the real problems of a family are known by a woman and when they do it, they help a country to get much better."

Source:BBC NEWS | Africa | Women to rule Rwanda parliament

My take:
Give me a break!!! Rwanda is ruled by Tutsi military Junta!! No one in Rwanda can have any say against Colonel James Kabarebe(Chief of General Staff of the Rwandan Defence Forces) and Paul Kagame(The president).These two men control anything in Rwanda no matter what.The rest just follow orders.So it doesnt really matter whether women are 100% or 20% or 0% in the parliament,The final word on anything in Rwanda comes from these two men.
In Kiswahili we called this "Danganya toto!!!" of Tutsi dominated government of President Kagame to cover up injustice and oppresion of Rwanda people.

 

[Pundit]

Cindy McCain aliandika a very nice Op-Ed on the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago on the position of women in the Rwandan legislative body.Rwanda ndiyo nchi ya kwanza kwa kuwa wa wanawake wengi in proportion to population in the legislative body.

Nimeitafuta nimeipata hii hapa chini

I have recently returned from Rwanda. I was last there in 1994, at the height of the genocide that claimed the lives of more than 800,000 Rwandans. The memories of what I saw haunt me still.

I wasn't sure what to expect all these years later, but I found a country that has found in its deep scars the will to move on and rebuild a civil society. And the renaissance is being led by women.

Women are at the forefront of the physical, emotional and spiritual healing that is moving Rwandan society forward. One of them, from eastern Rwanda, told me her story -- a violent, tragic and heartbreaking testimony of courage. She spoke of surviving multiple gang rapes, running at night in fear of losing her life, going days without food or water and witnessing the death of her entire family -- one person at a time, before her eyes.

The injuries she sustained left her unable to bear children. Illness, isolation and an utter lack of hope left her in abject despair.

And yet the day I met her, she wasn't consumed by hatred or resentment. She sat, talking with me and a few others, beside a man who had killed people guilty of nothing more than seeking shelter in a church. She forgave him. She forgave the perpetrators of her tragedy, and she explained her story with hope that such cruelty would never be repeated.

It is a humbling experience to be in the presence of those who have such a capacity for forgiveness and care. It is also instructive. If wealthy nations want their assistance programs to be effective, they should look to the women who form the backbone of every society. With some education, training, basic rights and empowerment, women will transform a society -- and the world.

Women today make up a disproportionate percentage of the Rwandan population. In the aftermath of the genocide, they had to head households bereft of fathers. They had to take over farms, and take jobs previously done by men. But there were opportunities, too: Today, 41% of Rwandan businesses are owned by women.

I saw their impact first hand at a coffee project in the city of Nyandungu. All the washing and coffee-bean selection is done by hand, by women there. Women for Women International, a remarkably active and innovative nongovernmental organization, has already helped over 15,000 Rwandan women through a year-long program of direct aid, job-skills training and education.

The organization is launching a project to train 3,000 women in organic agriculture, and is reaching out to females across the country. The women who instruct their fellow war survivors in economic development are an inspiration to those who cherish the essential benevolence of humanity.

But that is just the beginning. A new constitution ratified in 2003 required that women occupy at least 30% of the seats in parliament. (In our House and Senate only about 17% of the seats are filled by women.) Some wondered at the time whether it was feasible to meet this target. Now, nearly half of parliament and a third of the president's cabinet posts are held by women. Rwanda today has the world's highest percentage of female legislators.

Rwanda has a dark past but a bright future. It has a long way to go -- the country remains one of the world's poorest, and the social reverberations of the genocide are evident everywhere. Yet in the midst of tragedy, the women are building something genuinely new. Perhaps it is fitting that a nation so wracked by death could give birth to a vibrant new age. I know that one thing is clear: Through their bold and courageous actions, these women should inspire not only their fellow Africans, but all individuals -- men and women -- across the globe.

Mrs. McCain, the wife of Sen. John McCain and mother of four, founded the American Voluntary Medical Team, which helps bring doctors to war-torn countries.

 

[Buswelu]

All in Rwanda is cleanest country in east and central africa,it got very good land for agriculture...

The only thing about rwanda which i dont trust the citizen.....still there is remainin memory of genocide....that divide rwandis themself...into several groups.They still have division....and they still point that there wanyamurenge..in their country those are the one's which comes from congo and they did not see the really situation of genocide(how could you start judge others...while ur fighting to reconcile and build the country again? this kind of thinkin is the one which lead to genocide 14yrs back.All i can say they soul and heart...still have not change....their thinking that it should be another way of handle those who did genocide 14yrs back..thought from pundit story,that women seems to say she have forget and forgive...it just in their mouth.

And what rwanda is traying to do there is to show that women are the one's who suffer a lot in genocide...so they are given them first priority.But it nothing giving them that chance to be MP's....if they dont act or decide anything with their position.Because in that military county its only presidaa...and Kabarege who are final desion maker...other are fellow.When you get there u will not notice that...till you start go in bar's street in the shops,church..no freedom of speech there...katiba ya miaka ya rais kuongoza ni miaka 7 vipindi 2 hichi ndio cha kwanza..kinaisha 2010 sasa huyu jamaa si ataongoza maisha pale?

 

[MROSSO]

Brig up to that achievements. The dectrine of female theology has taken off in Africa. We have one president already,and more others are comining. To me I stand to urgue against this pride. African women are getting those big political positions but the great problem is the issue of women rights, justice and equality. Women in Africa are prone to all kinds of descrimination and humiliations. What is the rate of such things in Africa and particular in Rwanda. Their numbers does not matter, what matters is how they are representing the voice of majority of women who are suffering from all kinds of bruatal acts.

 

[WembeMkali]

Cindy McCain aliandika a very nice Op-Ed on the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago on the position of women in the Rwandan legislative body.Rwanda ndiyo nchi ya kwanza kwa kuwa wa wanawake wengi in proportion to population in the legislative body.

Thats what Kagame wants to be seen by outsiders!..He wants to be seen as the man of the people! the leader who is truly democratic and someone who care about womens rights and justice! but the big question still remains, do you think those women have gut to make any law which goes against the tutsi military junta ??? ..obvious not! so is the same mambo jumble!!!

 

[Fugwe]

For me it sounds different when one stand and praised presidaa Kagame. Kagame was a source of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. We have to remember that the killings came after Kagame and his label militia downed the plane that carried former presidaa Habyalimana and Burundian presidaa Ntibantunganya (if i'm not mistaken), the act that treggered and provoked the majority hutus who took matters in their hands by killing tutsis and moderate hutus who refused to side with them.

The ongoing move of planting more women in the legislative body, is like to cheat the international communities who may think that Kagame's intention is positive while not.

 

[Ladslaus Modest]

For me it sounds different when one stand and praised presidaa Kagame. Kagame was a source of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. We have to remember that the killings came after Kagame and his label militia downed the plane that carried former presidaa Habyalimana and Burundian presidaa Ntibantunganya (if i'm not mistaken), the act that treggered and provoked the majority hutus who took matters in their hands by killing tutsis and moderate hutus who refused to side with them.

The ongoing move of planting more women in the legislative body, is like to cheat the international communities who may think that Kagame's intention is positive while not.

Are you sure sir? Can you prove this sir?

 

[Son of Alaska]

our fallacy,particulary in africa,is rejoicing in these 'can bark but can not bite parliaments' when debates are ongoing and a MP comes up with a motion we rejoice,although in the really sense nothing will come out of it.poverty has confused us so much that we take anything that bears positivity onboard.In so long as the ruling party(this applies to most african countries)have more MP's in the house democracy will always hit a brick wall.i keep wondering,not to have a toothless parliament,what alternative do we have to vie for?