Kagame on spotlight again

When President Obama holds an historic meeting with African leaders this week, one guest will be especially awkward: Rwanda's increasingly authoritarian president, Paul Kagame. Unless the United States wants to wink at assassinating adversaries, stifling opposition and subverting neighboring nations, Kagame should be stricken from the guest list.

Since Kagame won a second seven-year term in 2010 with a reported 93 percent of the vote and an opposition cowed into submission, Rwanda has descended into despotism. This is a story I watched up close: Having served as a presidential aide and economic adviser, I resigned in 2010 before the election, after seeing Kagame become more dictatorial and sensing that much worse was on the way.

Sadly, my intuition was right. As Kagame once said of his political opponents, "Many of them tend to die." Growing numbers of Kagame's critics are dying, even in exile, in suspicious circumstances.

The death toll includes: Former intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya, strangled in a hotel room in Johannesburg, South Africa, early this year. Andre Kagawa Rwisereka, deputy president of the opposition Democratic Green Party, decapitated and dumped in a river in Rwanda in 2010. Charles Ingabire, editor of a newspaper critical of Kagame, shot to death in Kampala, Uganda, in 2011. And Theogene Turatsinze, former director of the Rwandan Development Bank, whose body was found floating in a lake in Mozambique in 2012.

Many more critics have been arrested on flimsy charges, beaten by police or simply disappeared. Independent newspapers have been shut down. Opposition parties have been suppressed. Many Rwandans have gone into exile, while many more have been scared into silence.

Kagame counts some fabulously famous and powerful people among his friends-people like Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Rick Warren. If those international elites truly value the welfare of Rwanda and its people, it is time they told Kagame to rein in the killing of his political opponents and respect human rights, or risk ruining his personal reputation and continued support for his country.

World leaders know something is wrong in Rwanda. Following the killing of Karegaya in Jonannesburg, South Africa expelled three Rwandan diplomats. Visiting Rwanda in 2011, Susan Rice, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, courageously declared: "Civil Society activists, journalists and political opponents of the government often fear organizing peacefully and speaking out… Some have simply disappeared." In a report last year on Rwanda's human rights record, the U.S. State Department documented the Rwandan government's "targeting of political opponents and human rights advocates for harassment, arrest and abuse," including "arbitrary or unlawful killings both inside and outside of the country, disappearance [and] torture." And last October, the Obama administration reduced military aid to Rwanda because of Kagame's support for the M23 rebel group, which abducts and recruits child soldiers to subvert the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

But Kagame continues to sneer at world opinion, without paying much of a price. Earlier this year, after the State Department said it was "deeply concerned" about the arrests and disappearance of Rwandans, Kagame declared, "We will continue to arrest more suspects and, if possible, shoot in broad daylight those who intend to destabilize our country."

Why haven't the United States and other leading nations taken stronger steps against Kagame's repressive regime?

First, the world remembers Rwanda's ruinous civil war in 1990 and the horrific genocide in 1994, and regrets not having saved the hundreds of thousands who died. To put it bluntly, "genocide guilt" works in Kagame's favor.

Second, Kagame has sent Rwandan soldiers on missions to stabilize other African countries. "Peacekeeper gratitude" is another of his calling cards.

Third, early in his rule, Kagame did much to restore order, rebuild the economy and regain the respect of world leaders-so much so that President Bill Clinton hailed him in 1998 as one of a "new breed of Africa leaders."

Fourth, global elites find Kagame's personal style reassuring. Presenting himself as more technocrat than thug and mouthing the latest management theories, he encourages leaders from government, business and academia to relate to him as a CEO, not a strongman.

Once, I saw him the same way. When Kagame first recruited me in 2000 from University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, where I was a professor, he asked me to lead a session at his annual retreat for leaders from government and business. Saying that he was impressed by my presentation, he asked me to help him reform the economy.

Together with my team, we identified the indicators by which international economists evaluate countries' business environments. Then, we set out methodically to improve Rwanda's rating in the World Bank's Doing Business report-and we did, modernizing laws and regulations, streamlining processes and cutting red tape. We leapt from 146th to 70th out of 200 countries. Currently, Rwanda stands at 32nd.

But the closer Kagame got to the election in 2010, the worse he became-the more he would overstate, the more he wanted to exaggerate. He was determined to turn Rwanda into the Singapore of Africa.

It's an alluring model in many respects, but no country can remain an attractive place to live, work or do business when its inhabitants fear being arrested or assassinated simply for speaking their minds.

President Obama has spoken eloquently for human rights. Now is the time for him to tell President Kagame: You can't be a despot in your home country and an honored guest at the White House.

David Himbara is a former senior aide and economic adviser to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

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Lastname said:

Huna jipya utabaki na umbea Kagame anachapoa mwendo. Badala ya kundika andoko lenye faida unabakia na umbeya tu. Tanzania na Rwanda ni tofauti kabisa Rwanda iko mbali sana

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basebo said:

Mungu ibariki israel na waisrael wote. Amen

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using JamiiForums

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Lastname said:

Huna jipya utabaki na umbea Kagame anachapoa mwendo. Badala ya kundika andoko lenye faida unabakia na umbeya tu. Tanzania na Rwanda ni tofauti kabisa Rwanda iko mbali sana

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Bongolander said:

Bha Murakoze

I have decided to share this with you to have an insight of what this man is saying about PK. This man, if he is what he says he is, and Politico being a reputed news outlet in US, are shedding the light of what were hear says. It will be good to look at his comments in an objective manner, and it would be better that keep in English so as those who are good at spiting insults can have a bit of a difficulty in ruining this talk.

I have always said (just like it is for Tanzania to be Africas Malaysia) it is pipe dream for Rwanda to be Africas Singapore, simply because Singapore did not have genocide like the one Rwanda witnessed, Singapore is a democracy in reality not in paper and does not have rule of man, Singapore does not have tribalism, and does not have arrogant leadership, Singapore does not have terrorist waiting to attack, and does not have her politician vanishing in thin air.

What struck me most in the article is the fact that data about Rwandas economic development appears to be cooked, just like Uganda did in 90's. So basically we are talking of a paper tiger cub here.

Again like i said before PK is dancing on the graves of genocide victims, a view that is repeated by his comments.

bha murakoze, Murutongore, Izibiza, Rushasha, koba, Jmall, Pasco, and others....read this article and let us discuss the contents of what David Imbara says, hope he will come here to comment before he becomes next Karegeya.




Source: politico.com

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Bongolander said:

I am sorry i do not understand what you mean by umbeya. And i do not get your point in connection to the points raised in the article. This post is a quote for a news outlet, not my making or any one who commented, so wambeya watakuwa politico.com. If you think we are fools, then fools will be those who printed the article, not who read and shared it.There are members from rwanda that i respect, who can shed a light in this man, not insults.

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MUKAMASIMBA said:

HAKUNA JIPYA MKUU......WABAYA WANAJULIKANA
Tanzania: Kikwete comes to aid of his brothers-in-law FDLR

[TD="class: expihsg"] Published: 22-07-2014 at 11:45 [/TD]

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It is no longer a secret that Tanzania President Kikwete’s wife Salma Kikwete is the cousin of the Juvenal Habyarimana. President Kikwete is eager to help the genocide machine which his brother in-law established in Rwanda before they themselves killed him.
For those who don’t know. According to secret US State Department cables published by whistle-blowing site Wikileaks, President Jakaya Kikwete’s wife fondly known in Tanzania as “Mama Salma Kikwete” is a cousin of former Rwanda leader Juvenal Habyarimana. The shocking details are contained in a cable sent to Washington on Thursday May 5th, 2005, by Shabyna Stillman, a senior diplomat at the US embassy in Dar es Salaam.
When the genocide militia moved to Zaire (now DR Congo) in late 1994, Kikwete was already in government as cabinet minister. There is no secret that President Kikwete actually hosted Djumatatu Nzeyimana is the current vice president of PDR-IHUMURE, of genocide denier Paul Rusesabagina.
Many years down the road, President Kikwete is doing the needful; coming to the aid of FDLR militia, which is essentially his brothers-in-law because they are related to his wife. Kikwete is fulfilling a bedroom pledge to his wife Salma that he will use all resources possible to make sure the FDLR return to Rwanda to complete their life-long determination; to finish all Tutsis.
The Exposer.

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MUKAMASIMBA said:

we kazi yako ni kuchota habari katika mitandao ya wapinzani wa rwanda unafikiri utapata hari gani nzuri kuhusu rwanda,nafikiri imefika wakati watanzania mkageuza macho yenu mkaangazia ya tanzania,acheni wanyarwanda wapumue kidogo he!

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CattleRustler said:

Kagame is one big paradox that i have not been able to figure out a place to put him. Like wise US government is also having hard time to decide what to do with him. Its A fact he was supporting M23 and heavily involved in looting Congo's resources while partnering with some US company. The US government's decision to block the release of UN report about Rwanda government's involvement in Congo is the confirmation of my previous statement. However have not been able to say He is necessarily a bad President for his country. Like wise as a Tanzanian I will not say He is worse or better for his county compare to what Kikwete is for Tanzania. The main reason for my indecision about who is better for his country between the two is the fact that i have not heard even once Kagame's government involved in corruption scandal, incompetence and stupidity that we commonly hear in Tanzania. So if you are mediocre politicians feeling entitled to be in government, CCM types, You will definitely see kagame as bad president for his country. But if you are an average ethical professional i.e Accountant, Doctor, Engineer and mostly a teacher you will probably think Kagame is a Good president for his countly

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Jamaa_Mbishi said:

It is a known fact that PK is a killer. Time has come for East African leaders to deal with him, he just has to perish. There's no feeling sorry for him because if they don't kill him now East Africa will be in jeopardy. Kagame has to die!

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