By Albert Mushabizi
President Kagame met opinion leaders of Musanze District. After a long absence till time opposition politicians and activists spread rumors that he had passed away. It seems evident that it is the first debate he organizes closer to the population contrarily to others ceremonies where he appears unnoticed.
In his speech, he criticized his internal and external political opponents denigrating their political programs which cannot be realized due to lack of financial means of abroad. Contradicting the content of the speech his assistants had prepared for him, he recognized that those enemies of the country are disturbing his plans by spreading lies on his governance in the states which support them.
Regarding the internal opposition he indirectly raised the case of KARASIRA Aimable and other activists of human rights who for him freely speak out but that when they cross the red line are automatically jailed. These threats resemble others he had addressed to the politician Mrs.INGABIRE Victoire granting to her just one month of a sort of honey moon whereby she was allowed to freely speak out and be jailed at the end of the day; and this occurred.
Is it true that people who fled the country are living in bad conditions than people living inside under RPF governance?
t the beginning of his speech, he denigrated the former dignitaries who fled him saying that they live in misery abroad, starting with the generals and the ministers; compared to the life they lived in the country; facing that misery, they take revenge by tarnishing the reputation of their native land. He continued with the former teachers and the drivers who vegetate in extreme poverty; these disparaging remarks resemble those he had made in another speech against his opponents by calling them handlers.
actually, nothing is better than living in his country; by denigrating the Rwandan refugees, he forgets that he was also exiled and that if they are there it is due to his bad governance; that fleeing was an incomparable chance for them because those who have not managed to leave the country are either in prison, or are stranded for lack of documents allowing them to travel or they have been brutally murdered or unimaginably impoverished.
The populations to which Kagame was addressing are well aware of the usefulness of their relatives living abroad because they regularly send them a little money to relieve them of the misery in which they are languishing in Rwanda. Moreover, covid 19 has unmasked the real reality of the country whereby those who have parents abroad survived thanks to money they sent to them while those who haven’t any relatives seriously suffered. nonetheless, he puts aside the policy of « come and see » though which rwandan authorities call upon people of Diaspora to come and get identity documents and passport permitting them to freely leave and come back but also send funds in the country.
Rwandan population who were fed up by bad life conditions; they preferred economic exile in neighboring countries to benefit good life conditions because Rwandan life situation is lower than that of those areas. Others left the country to engage in petty trade and seek employment given that in Rwanda all businesses are paralyzed by higher taxes; corruption and they cannot find job in a country where prevail favoritism. they have settled in the southern African countries of SADEC where working conditions are favorable.
President Kagame seemed troubled by the principles of liberty and democracy which are pretexts claimed by the opposition to fight the regime of Kigali
Starting his speech President Kagame who seemed not well prepared forgot to greet the different distinguished guests and did it later and the latter replied with the usual applause, practice to which Rwandans are accustomed.
Stressing that rebellions have many times tempted to retake the country by arms and that when they failed they took the path of exile where they survive in misery, he then used a metaphor of people rising from an abyss showing that in 1994 Rwanda was in an abyss; this political mentality is overtly erroneous and biased because the history of Rwanda does not begin in 1994; so that the whole preceding period is always considered a dark period. He then indicated that from 1994 within the seizure of power until 2010, the management team was made of positive parties and critics; that it is the latter who left the country and continue to tarnish its image.
President KAGAME, next to the denigration of opponents in exile for the poor living conditions, did not fail to admit that they succeed in convincing the foreign powers of the lie that there is no freedom and democracy in Rwanda. These foreign countries intend to one day come with these opponents in exile to teach there freedom and democracy but that the population will not be fooled because it understands the vision of the country; he took the opportunity to congratulate the security services i.e. the army and the police who were able to counter those rebels who no longer threaten because they are now counted at their fingertips
Why delivering such a speech in the district of Musanze, an area formerly called Ruhengeri?
The past of this region where the speech was delivered by President Kagame is not pleasant for ruling political party RPF. This region leading to the west of the country encountered an unspeakable insecurity because during the war of RPF rebellion; its volcanic part facilitated them to organize skirmishes and return there to hide. Even when the RPF forces took power, the local population never digested them, the reason why the infiltrators who wanted to regain power were accommodated and it was therefore made easier for them to carry out battles and get food. To handle this issue of infiltrators; the regime of Kigali he practiced the scorched earth tactic whereby the local population assimilated with the invaders was coldly shot without distinction of civilians and rebels; the population suffered extremely during that counter attack which pushed the survivors to obey the new masters of the country not because they appreciated them but because they avoided to suffer again the reprisals of this bloodthirsty power which exterminated their relatives without mercy.
The district of Musanze is now suffering from hunger caused by the closure of borders with Uganda whereby commercial exchanges are no longer authorized; while such exchanges favor neighboring populations of both sides and their cancellation caused indescribable losses.
When leaving Katuna after negotiations with Rwanda mediated by DRC;Congo and Angola; President Museveni met the population of KABARE who asked him the reasons that paralyze the reopening of boundaries with Rwanda; he sincerely revealed to them that it is Rwanda which is blocking all ways forward suggested to overcome the crisis by it renowned malicious maneuvers.
During the electoral campaign populations of Kisoro neighboring Musanze district expressed to President Museveni their concern about the closure of the frontiers with Rwanda because it caused uncountable losses asking him the progress of its eventual reopening ; the President replied that the process of resolution of the dispute is on a good way but he put aside the fact that it was caused by Rwanda. The populations of regions of KISORO and KABARE neighboring Rwanda have the chance in a liberal country to express their political right to ask their President about the issue of borders’ closure; on the other side, Rwandan population cannot dare ask such questions to President KAGAME. Anyone may dare raising such a concern may encounter unfortunate consequences. They prefer to resign and suffer in silence and it is them who lost the most because they no longer trade; have lost everything, are unemployed and affording hunger.
President KAGAME is aware that the population is silently not pleased by the deplorable decision of closing the frontiers with Uganda; instead they psychologically suffer from this resolution which incurred Unovercomable losses. It would not be a mistake if one attributes the trip of President Kagame to the kidnapping carried out by Rwandan defence forces of a Ugandan soldier who was appointed at the frontier post just to maliciously prove to Rwandans that the closure of borders was well founded due to the misbehavior of a bad neighbor.
Even if President KAGAME appreciated the local population for denouncing any infiltrators intending to perturb their security given that they know the importance of security and for their obedience to their leaders; Rwanda is concerned by the friendly relationships between DRC and Uganda which progressively become tight to the extent that it risks being excluded and chased from the north-eastern region of Kivu where it had informally deployed its armed elements pretending insuring its own security. Next week President Tshisekedi and his counterpart of Uganda will meet at Kasindi where they intend to sign a bilateral treaty related to the construction of a road linking Uganda with the Goma City which will therefore solve the losses of transport of goods which were compelled to transit by Rwanda to reach eastern regions of DRC.The two countries will deploy their joint forces to insure safety during the works; fact which angers Rwanda which backs many rebellions there and whose army informally is installed in the area.
Assurance of security beyond borders where Rwanda endlessly accuses Uganda of backing rebellions destabilizing it progressively becomes as an utopia. The closure of boundaries risk exacerbating its natural landlockedness with negative impact on its economy and impoverishing Rwandan population residing near borders. In a nutshell, this is what debated during the meeting of resident KAGAME with opinion leaders of Musanze District.
