Rwanda ruling party approves Paul Kagame third term bid

[Kenyan]

Rwanda President Paul Kagame's bid to run for a third term has been endorsed by senior members of the country's ruling party, paving the way for a constitutional amendment.

The ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) approved the bid even though the country's constitution provides for two presidential term limits.

RPF issued a statement on Monday backing a constitutional change after about 600 high-ranking members held a two-day retreat in the capital Kigali.

"Based on the wishes of Rwandans and party members that have been recently expressed, we support that the [constitution]... should be amended," the RPF statement read.


Kagame is coming to the end of his second seven-year term and has argued that the constitution had been drawn up by the people and they can determine any changes to the charter.

Instead of an opposition, over 3.6 million people signed a petition urging parliament to change the constitution to allow Kagame to run.

In early April, he said he disagreed with initiatives to amend the constitution but was "open" to being convinced otherwise.

However, observers say most of the people who signed the petition did so under duress.

Kagame has since addressed the claims.

"If the allegations that some people have been forced are true, that's a concern and you should also have that concern," Kagame told RPF members.
Kagame's criicis say he tramples on media and political freedoms, and does not deserve a third term.

But supporters argue Rwanda has made significant progress since the 1994 genocide and Kagame would transform the country into a middle-income country by 2020.

While Rwanda has remained relatively peaceful under Kagame's leadership and the RPF's plan for a third term, neighbouring Burundi under similar circumstances has declined into civic unrest.

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza expressed interest in a third term bid on April 25 and the announcement triggered weeks of violent protests by opponents who said the move violated the constitution.

But analysts do not anticipate a similar eruption in Rwanda if Kagame runs again.


Source: Theafricareport.com

 

[MENISON]

Yale yale ya Burundi ,kama kawaida ya viongozi wengi waafrika ni kama fashion

 

[Pdidy]

Nilitabiri naona yametimia.ksa.wale wanaodai awa jamaa.chukuen chenu mapema saa yoyote hali si shwarii..na baadhi wameanza kujiandaa kukimbia nchi baada ya chama kumpitisha kagame.kuwania.mara ya tatu

Na hii.ni sababu ya raisi kagame hana wa kumwamini kumwachia.nchi

Wanamaombi mwombee kweli kweli

 

[nanjanga]

kazi kwey key

 

[Utingo]

who would dare to object?

 

[Pdidy]

Labda wapitie.boda ya iran trip hii

 

[Pdidy]

Damu za wapinzani jela.zitamlilia na atakimbia.nchi

 

[jMali]

Tofauti ya Kagame na madikteta wengine ni kuwa anatumiaga akili sometimes. Kagame alishaonyesha dalili za kutaka kuwa rais wa milele miaka kadhaa nyuma, ni watu wasiojua tu ndio wanaweza kukubali hizi hadithi kuwa eti "ameombwa na wananchi" majuzi!
Aliyekuwa waziri wake wa sheria Tharcisse karugarama alihojiwa na The guardian (UK) kuhusu term limits na akasema kuwa kikatiba Kagame haruhusiwi kugombea tena (obviously alikuwa hajui kuwa Kagame anataka kugombea tena). Baada ya hapo kagame naye akaulizwa kama maneno ya waziri yako sawa, hivi ndivyo alivyosema:

"Why don't you tell him to step down himself? All those years he's been there, he's not the only one who can be the justice minister," he says. source: Is Kagame Africa's Lincoln or a tyrant exploiting Rwanda's tragic history? | World news | The Observer. Baada ya hapo akabadili baraza la mawaziri na huyu waziri wa sheria bwana Karugarama akapigwa chini. Hii ilionyesha moja kwa moja kuwa kuna tatizo kwa sababu Karugarama ni wale mawaziri vigogo, e.g hapa bongo imagine baraza likabadilishwa halafu Membe anapigwa chini, tena baada ya kutolewa maneno kama hayo.

Baada ya hapo Kagame akawabambika kesi na kuwaweka ndani vigogo wote wakubwa wa chama cha RPF ambao wangempinga kama kina Rose kabuye na wenzie, hawa walishaonyesha kuwa hawataki agombee tena. Hivyo chama cha RPF kwa sasa kimebaki na vijana vijana tu na wale wazee wa "ndio mzee". E.g kwa hapa bongo fanya CCM imewaweka ndani kina Dr Salim, Mangula, Warioba na wengine kama hao, halafu wamebaki kina luteni makamba, kina nape nauye...hao watamzuia vipi mwenyekiti kuvunja katiba ya CCM?
Kamaliza hapo akaweka ndani viongozi wote wakubwa wa jeshi ambao wangeweza kumpindua kama kina Brigedia Gen Frank rusagara, Captain David Kabuye, Col Tom byabagamba (aliyekuwa mkuu wa jeshi la kumlinda kagame!). Hawa ni viongozi influential sana jeshini wanao command utii toka kwa wanajeshi vijana. Na kwa vile amebana media zote kwa sasa hakuna mtu mwenye nguvu wa kumpinga labda wawe nje ya Rwanda.

 

[Fall Army Worm]

Ngoja tusubiri tuone!.

 

[dagii]

Tumwombee nanai sasa?shauri yao kila mtu na kifurushichake bwana

 

[NEPTUNE]

Ni uhuni tu, viongozi waheshimu mihula ya kuongoza kama ilivyo katika katiba zao.

 

[wiseboy.]

Topic za pdidy huwa hazijitoshelezi,unatakiwa uandike kwa kina na kwa ufafanuzi,acha bangi mkuu.

 

[MtamaMchungu]

"Serikali ya kimapinduzi haiondolewi kwa sanduku la kura"

 

[Manosa]

Madaraka matamu

 

[Bavaria]

jMali

Kagame anatumia vibaya sana ile genocide ya rwanda...
Kana kwamba yeye ni ultimate leader wa kuwaunganisha wanyarwanda wakati anautumia huo mwanya kuvunja katiba...
Tanzania tu ndo tunaweza kusema tuna afadhali ya demokrasia kwa hizi nchi za maziwa makuu...
Inabidi tupate rais ambae atakuwa kama kiranja kwa nchi za maziwa makuu, mambo kama haya si ya kuyaangalia...

 

[mchambawima1]

jMali

on the contrary, this is why we keep begging him to continue leading us towards more prosperous Rwanda for all Rwanda and not your "Democracy" where a winner takes all and nothing get done! under your "democracy" you can only enjoy corruption, killing each other/genocides like you did back then 94 in Rwanda...
President Paul Kagame's exemplary leadership has turned around a country which was totally a failed state in 1994 to a fast developing country with most indicators of development higher than has been achieved elsewhere and now a case study in development discourse. Rwandese know better their environment and how President Kagame has miraculously managed to tame most challenges of development that has dodged many countries with luxuries of resources which Rwanda lacks. We know the price of peace for we once lived in hell on earth. We know what development is, for we once lived in the extremes of poverty a country can be. We know the what unity is, for ours was destroyed to its heart by genocide.

Under his leadership, the nation has reduced the percentage of people living below the poverty line from 59 percent to 45 percent between 2001 and 2011, with the share of people living in extreme poverty falling faster. Life expectancy, literacy, primary school enrollment and spending on health care have all gained.

Our constitution is ours, and no one can tell us how it should be, except ourselves.Join Rwanda's youth by signing this petition, to change article 101 and let President Kagame run for a 3rd term. We choose continued economic growth, equality for women and unity.

Our future is in our hands!

see the video link below of Rwanda's journey under the leadership of President Kagame:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-XJm0O4Ht8

 

[mchambawima1]

Newspaper says three MPs, thought to be opposed to lifting term limits, have resigned suggesting dissent is being quashed.

President Kagame: Will he or won't he? (Photo/AFP).
RWANDA’S ruling party has backed calls to change the constitution that would allow Paul Kagame a third term in power as president, reports said Tuesday.
Over 3.7 million people have signed a petition calling for a change of Article 101 of the constitution, which limits the president to two terms, the New Times newspaper reported.
Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), after a weekend meeting of some 600 top members, issued a statement calling for constitutional change.
“Considering the wishes of many Rwandans and those of members of the RPF, we support the proposed amendment of Article 101 of the constitution and any other provisions in the law that need modification,” the statement read, according to the New Times.
Done deal?
Rwanda today has a population of close to 12 million, and in the 2010 vote it had 5,178,492 registered voters. The over 3.7 million petitioners would be nearly 72% of the registered voters, and just 938,560 shy of 4,638,560 votes Kagame got to win the August 9, 2010 election with 93.08%.
Essentially, then, the decision Kagame has to make is whether or not he wants to continue in state house, otherwise a victory at the 2017 polls looks certain.
Kagame, 57, has been at the top of Rwandan politics since 1994, when an offensive by his RPF largely ethnic Tutsi rebel force put an end to a genocide by Hutu extremists that left an estimated 800,000 mostly Tutsis dead.
As minister of defence and then vice president, Kagame was widely seen as the power behind the throne even before he took the presidency in 2003, winning 95 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 2010 with a similarly resounding mandate.
From the trauma of genocide, he has been painted as a guarantor of stability and economic development, earning praise from donors—and his supporters say many in Rwanda view the prospect of his departure as a step into the unknown.
Kagame says the decision is for the “Rwandan people”.
“I have not asked anyone to change the constitution and I have not told anybody how or what to think about 2017,” Kagame said in April.
The move comes amid a wider controversy in Africa over efforts by leaders to change constitutions in order to stay in office.
In Rwanda too, there are signs that some elements of the emerging public consensus for lifting term limits might be stage-managed and dissent is being quashed. The regional paper The East African, reported that two Rwandan members of Parliament, and a third one who sits in the regional East African Community assembly in the bloc capital Arusha, Tanzania, have resigned because they don’t support the constitutional amendment.
Attacks on term limits
Neighbouring Burundi has been in turmoil since in April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his bid to stand for a third term in polls next month, a move branded by opponents as unconstitutional and a violation of a 2006 peace deal that ended 13 years of civil war.
The epidemic of attacks on term limits has become so widespread and problematic on the continent, so much so that just over a week ago at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, in Cape Town, South Africa President Jacob Zuma, who is serving his second and last term, and Ghana’s Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, said the issue of presidential term limits should be taken up by the African Union (AU).

 

[INGENJA]

jMali

Mbona huja mtaja Gen. Nyamwasa hapa ngoja nikukumbushe nikati ya watu walio kuwa wanamnyima Kagame usingizi hadi kufikia kuwafukuza na wengine kuwauwa wakiwa uhamishoni.

 

[Ngongo]

Ni kweli Gen Nyamwasa Faustine kakoswa koswa kutolewa uhai maa mbili uhamishoni Afrika Kusini.

mbona huja mtaja Gen. Nyamwasi hapa ngoja nikukumbushe nikati ya watu walio kuwa wanamnyima Kagame usingizi hadi kufikia kuwafukuza na wengine kuwauwa wakiwa uhamishoni

 

[Koba]

mchambawima1

Couldn't agree more.