@DavidHimbara : What Is The Purpose of Rwanda’s Annual Leadership Retreat – Reflection or Public Humiliation?

Looking at the images of the 2017 National Leadership Retreat, one might mistake Kagame for an obituary announcer, and leaders listening to him as mourners. It is a gloomy and fearful occasion. It is therefore a legitimate question – what is the purpose of the National Leadership Retreat in Rwanda? This Retreat is unlike similar exercises. Normally, Retreats enable leaders, executives and other stakeholders to improve performance and delivery of services. In particular, leadership retreats provide space to do at least four things:

1. Engage minds to reflect on past performance and to fine-tune future policy execution.
2. Recognize unproductive patterns, both within leadership and in workplace interactions in order to adjust for improved performance and delivery.
3. Initiate change by connecting fully with those in charge of oversight and sector programs.
4. Respond to opportunities and challenges for better results.

Rwanda’s Leadership Retreat has little in common with such exercises. Kagame uses the Retreat to exert his power and position to make other leaders feel insignificant. Worse – Kagame declares Rwandan leaders useless. The abuse has now become a ritual.

Who does Kagame humiliate? Rwanda’s National Leadership Retreat is attended by government officials including President Paul Kagame, Chief Justice, President of the Senate, Speaker of Parliament, Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and other senior officials. The gathering also includes military chiefs, business leaders, and heads of civil society organizations.

In a style of old-school totalitarian headmaster, Kagame reduces the entire Rwandan leadership to inept and even corrupt people. This is precisely how Kagame just described Rwandan leadership at the 2017 Retreat.

Perhaps the 2015 Leadership Retreat was the worst in this regard. Shockingly, the President stated:

“Everybody has become like the other – the killers of yesterday and the liberators of yesterday…full of self-importance and doing nothing for this country that has suffered so much.”

According to Kagame, he is the only one left to save Rwanda as he put it in 2015. Were it possible he would even “take arms and fight” against the current non-performing and corrupt system.

In most bizarre moment of the 2015 Leadership retreat, the Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda who doubles as Kagame advisor, tried to rescue Rwandan leaders from Kagame by listing all the good things that Rwanda has supposedly achieved. Mwenda extraordinarily claimed that Rwanda has a better healthcare system than even the united States of America.

Kagame then turned on Mwenda:

“I really don’t like your comments. You can reserve them for your Independent newspaper. You write them and I will read them there.”

Fast forward to 2017. Kagame has once repeated the ritual, terming the Rwandan leaders zombies who come to the retreat only to leave and repeat same motions – incompetence and no delivery.

Kagame seems to forget four factors:

1. He is the builder of the current system since 1994.
2. He is the appointing authority of all the officials he is now cursing.
3. He is their chief executive officer; chief operational officer, and chief financial officer.
4. He has used the same people he is abusing to grab power – he is set to rule until 2034 and possibly beyond.

By characterizing the Rwandan system as incompetent and corrupt, Kagame is conceding that he is a total failure. He is, after all, the architect of the system.

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David Himbara

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Give Kagame A Hollywood Medal - This Man Is A Great Actor

Give Kagame A Hollywood Medal

Kagame on the world stage giving a lecture at Yale on September 20, 2016, was spectacular. The man appears sophisticated, and argues passionately about Rwanda, which, according to him, is a model nation being frustrated by the West. Because of its arrogance, the West dictates that every country must follow same political norms dictated by the powerful - says Kagame.

During his Yale lecture, Kagame dished out his standard line that the West makes unfair "assumptions" and has prejudices against not only Rwandans but Africans. Kagame defines this Western "moral superiority."

When questioned about his human rights record, Kagame would have none of it - he instead reminded the audience of the economic gains he has made since genocide. In other words Kagame's "Singapore of Africa."

This is great acting. Kagame deserves an Oscar Award from Hollywood. To his naive Yale University hosts, Kagame is convincing in his role and accurately portrays elements of an African statesman who has singlehandedly rebuilt the nation of Rwanda. In front of Yale cameras and a largely unsuspecting audience, Kagame demonstrates masterly acting skills.

As I look at this first rate performance at Yale University, I can't help wonder what would happen, if the same audience listened to a Kagame speech in Kigali, delivered in the same month on September 12, 2016. Addressing university students, Kagame made his infamous "I Will Kill You" remarks. These were his words:

"Those noise-makers you hear all the time, those people who want to mess with us and undermine what we have built. I will kill you. I am not one of those people who are shy about killing. Not me. I will finish you. Those who make noise. I let them do so. But should they cross a line in the sand, you won't know what hit you."

The man speaking in Kigali was the real Kagame - using the thuggish language with which he has terrorized Rwandans into total submission. The Kagame speaking at Yale University was a make believe.

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David Himbara

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Gutabariza Umuyobozi wa FDU-Inkingi Madame Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza

Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza 

Kuva kuwa gatandatu ushize tariki ya 24 Nyakanga 2016 Mme Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza ararwaye bikomeye kandi yasabye ubuyobozi bwa gereza ya 1930 afungiwemo ko yavuzwa ariko kugeza ubu twandika bwatereye agati mu ryinyo! Kuva ejo kandi twari twasabye umuyobozi wa gereza ko niba gereza nta bushobozi ifite batwemerera tukamwivuriza ariko nta gisubizo baraduha.

Nta gushidikanya ko ubu buyobozi bwa gereza ya Nyarugenge bwaba buri ku gitutu cy'ubutegetsi bwa Kigali kugirangi iyi mpirimbanyi ya demukarasi yicwe urubozo na cyane ko ibi bidasanzwe kuko ubundi yajyaga ajyanwa kuvuzwa bitanagombye ko tugomba kumutabariza.

Si igitangaza ku kwibasirwa kuyu munyapolitiki ariko ni ubwambere yibasiwe mu kubuzwa kubona ubuvuzi kuko ibyari bimenyerewe kwari ukumubuza ubundi burenganzira ngo kusurwa kubonana uko bikwiye nabunganizi be nta nkomyi...

Turasaba ubuyobozi bwa leta y'uRwanda ko bukwiye kujya iteka bwumva ko nta kiri hejuru y'ubuzima bw'umuntu kuburyo bubukiniraho nta nkomyi.

Twongeye gusaba dukomeje ko umuyobozi wa FDU Inkingi yahita ajyanwa kuvurwa kugirango ubuzima bwe burengerwe.
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Boniface Twagirimana

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Watch Kagame swear in 2011 that he will never change the constitution to stay in power

Watch Kagame swear in 2011 that he will never change the constitution to stay in power

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Democracy in Rwanda Now a Nonpartisan Network of Rwandan Organizations

Rwanda has hardly ever existed without a dictatorship that ends in violence. Post-independence is indicative of this tragedy. The Gergoire Kayibanda regime was overthrown by General Juvénal Habyarimana in 1973. Most members of Kayibanda government were systematically killed by the new regime. Since then the army has been the most powerful force in Rwandan political life.

David Himbara The Author of Kagame’s Economic Mirage

Habyarimana power grab via a coup d’état can therefore be said to have set a future course in which authoritarian rulers build a façade of legitimacy—to obscure the true nature of dictatorship. The civil war in 1990-1994, the violent end of Habyarimana and his regime and genocide in 1994 ushered in a new dictatorship led by General Paul Kagame. The 2003 constitution written under Kagame supervision grants him absolutist powers which he uses to rule Rwanda with an iron-fist. Genuine opposition is either in prison, killed or in exile. Today's iron-fisted rule makes Habyarimana's dictatorship seem like a democratic dispensation. Is Rwanda doomed to remain a dictatorship? We don’t think so. Rwandans like other peoples demand and deserve democracy whose key characteristics include free and fair elections and the impartial enforcement of laws.

Most Rwandans would no doubt like to see Rwanda emerge someday as a prosperous, and democratic republic. To be sure, the near-term future looks unpromising. The things required for genuine and broad-based development—rule of law, a well-regulated financial system, transparency of wealth, a strong commitment to science and education—are in short supply. Even much of private sector activities are controlled by ruling elite, the Rwandan Patriotic Front. But we cannot accept the notion that the current state is a permanent one where a nation of 12 million people will continue to suffer forever....

• We reject the idea that post-independence political dictatorship is the way of life for Rwanda forever.
• We reject the idea that removal of a regime in Rwanda must plunge the country into chaos.
• We reject the idea that Rwandans will remain bystanders while our rulers determine our fate.

Join us in our nonpartisan network of Rwandan organizations and individuals to engage in genuine dialogue on the future of our country. We are not nor do we wish to become a political party nor do we seek any future office in Rwanda. We are a platform for engaging in constructive discussion of our future. Debate is extremely important to our survival as a people. Talking about issues and trying to figure out how to solve them, makes the World, including Rwanda, go round. Discussion clarifies, and makes it easier for people to handle issues when they arise. Debate has been used for millennia as a way of changing cultural norms, laws and even mindsets. We are not an exception to that rule.

David Himbara The Author of Kagame’s Economic Mirage

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