Kigali scores highly on growth, but hurdles remain

Rwanda Genocide commemoration: The victories, challenges and looking to the future. 

By EDMUND KAGIRE The EastAfrican

In Summary

• Rwanda has been praised for its successful reconstruction, prudent economic policies and ambitious fight against poverty.
• While the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party has been credited with turning things around in the past 20 years, it has been accused of reducing the political space.
• The ruling party has been accused of targeting and hunting down its perceived enemies, mainly those in exile.

As it marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide against Tutsi, in which nearly a million people were killed, Rwanda scores highly on its human development indices, but must confront accusations of human rights abuses and intolerance.

Rwanda has been praised for its successful reconstruction, prudent economic policies and ambitious fight against poverty.

READ: Rwanda ranked Africa's most enticing market for retailers

President Paul Kagame, who has led the country to make this progress, is seen as an astute and modern-day African leader.

Rwanda’s zealous fight against corruption and its ICT vision have received global plaudits. The capital Kigali has transformed from a dusty town littered with bodies and streams of blood in 1994 to one of the cleanest and safest cities in Africa and the world.

But while the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party has been credited with turning things around in the past 20 years, it has been accused of reducing the political space. Both President Kagame and RPF have received as much praise as criticism.

The country’s leadership has also come under scrutiny for what the United Nations has described as meddling in the affairs of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as its human rights record, democratic credentials, clamping down on the media and being intolerant to dissents, accusations the ruling party dismisses as unfair.

Instead, ruling party stalwarts say Rwanda’s democracy and its political path have been shaped and carved out of its past, forging a country that is not built along ethnic lines or confrontational politics similar to those that led to the 1994 genocide.

In an interview with The EastAfrican, two senior RPF cadres, Tito Rutaremara and Dr Joseph Karemera, said the ruling party and the current leadership had surmounted impossible challenges to put the country where it is today, notwithstanding the criticism.

“No other government in the world has done what the RPF has been able to do in a space of 20 years … rebuilding a country that was completely torn apart, returning millions of refugees and resettling them and getting them out of abject poverty,” said Mr Rutaremara.

“We built a country out of impossibilities. Rwandans are now one, can access social services, such as health care, education and credit facilities, and have the infrastructure that allows them to carry out their development activities. These are the fundamental rights you give people first,” he added.

Dr Karemera, a retired senator and the first Minister of Health after the genocide, defended RPF’s record, saying some of the accusations levelled against Rwanda are in conflict with what Rwandans want.

They cite political space as one of the areas where Kigali has been wrongly accused. He gave the example of Opposition politician Victoire Ingabire, whose imprisonment for crimes related to the genocide has been criticised.

“This is someone who came here, uttered statements that were likely to set people back into ethnic divisions. Leave that alone, there was incriminating evidence, not from us, some of it obtained from other countries showing that this woman was working with FDLR, a recognised terrorist organisation. How is RPF responsible for (her tribulations)?” Dr Karemera asked.

The RPF maintains that there is adequate “political space” for those who want to engage in constructive politics, and cites the close to a dozen political parties that are operating in the country.