Dear editor,

I read the two articles about Rwanda and president Kagame, one was written by some one calling him self Mugisha and another by a reader from Kenya. Iwill start with tha of MUgisha.

First of all I agree with Mugisha that the 1994 genocide was planned. In my opinion, genocide can not occur by chance. It demands an overall strategy, scrupulous planning and organization, control of the levers of government, highly motivated killers, the means to butcher vast numbers of people, the capacity to identify and kill the victims and tight control of the media to disseminate the right the right messages both inside and outside the country. This diabolical machine had been already created and well established. In fact it seems every thing was ready and waiting for a trigger when the president’s plane went down. If some one is to understand the 1994 genocide, he needs to start far back in the 1950s during the quest for independence and go through the 1st and the 2nd republic.

I would go beyond this and say that the 1994 genocide was planned and executed by the Habyarimana regime. The year 1994 gave the genocide the final step. Systematic killings had been taking place since 1959 until 1994 which was the climax. Hundreds of tutsis had been killed before since 1960s in Kibirira, Bugesera and other many thousands slaughtered in Kinigi as well as in other parts of Rwanda. The media publishes Hutu commandments and leaders start mobilizing the population for the killings. A prominent Hutu leader Leo Mugesera once said “The fatal mistake we made in 1959 was to let them (the Tutsi) get out. They belong to Ethiopia and we are going to find them a shortcut to get there by throwing them into the Nyabarongo River (to carry them northwards). I must insist on this point. We have to act. Wipe them all out.” Can you see how theories had been already developed to justify their acts?

Mugisha is arguing that Kagame has failed to democratize Rwanda. But he has to know that democracy is dynamic. He may be fixed on a certain model of democracy but each country has its own way of undertaking the democratization process depending on the culture, history, socio-economic situation and the ethnic composition of that country. When you take all the above elements of the society into consideration, then you will surely address the needs of the society. Among the important elements in democracy, there is participation, accountability, rule of law, inclusiveness and responsiveness. Rwanda has addressed of the above elements. Through the decentralization program, citizens are participating not only in elections but also in the determination of the priorities and with the performance contracts leaders are accountable to the electorate and administrative councils have been setup to check on the possible manipulations of leaders. In Rwanda no body is beyond the law, many corrupt leaders and officials have been dealt with and have been sacked. Yes that is what it means to have responsible leadership.

Mugisha also says that he allegedly wanted Kagame to go beyond ethnic divisions and unite Rwandans. Yes indeed this was one of the priorities of the Government of National Unity and a lot has been done in line with this. One important thing Mugisha has to know is that reconciliation is a process and should not expect divisionism that reigned in Rwanda for more than 30years to be removed in only 14years. However, Rwanda has gone far in the journey towards unity and reconciliation. Can Mugisha tell readers how the former regime discriminated against Tutsi students in schools and how they were denied chances for further education? Can he explain how many students can now go to school today without discrimination? The National University of Rwanda for example had only over 490 students by the time the genocide happened, today, there are over 8000 students on merit basis through the National Examination Council that was also created by the existing government. Can he be frank and tell us how many Tutsis were in leadership during the 1st and 2nd republic? In 17yrs of Habyarimana regime for example, there were neither a single Tutsi Head of a prefecture (Governors today) nor a single Tutsi bourgmaster (Mayors today) and there were only one Member of Parliament by that time. Can he now compare with the situation today? How is the leadership shared among the three groups? How many so called Hutus are in the cabinet? How many Tutsis are there? Let hime tell us and compare with the situation before. There is where he recognized that there are many Hutus but said they don’t take any decision. Can Kagame run his office and at the same time run all the ministries and other institutions headed by the Hutus? Readers, just think about that situation. It is unbelievable.

Regarding the alleged RPA killings in Byumba, Mugisha says the RPA including Mugisha himself killed many people. But the RPA was a body of thousands of soldiers. It may be true that some of them killed people for example those under arrest in Kigali for allegedly killing the Catholic Church officials in Kabgayi but it was not the whole group. He doesn’t give us some specific names of soldiers who killed those people in Byumba. I think we should first arrest that Mugisha for the killings because he has confessed that him self participated in the killings. Mugisha talks of the meeting he attended with other senior officers of RPA and that Kagame was asking them what will happen if the world know what they did but he (Mugisha) does not explain the meeting he attended and where the meeting took place, who were the participants and the resolutions of that meeting and if possible give a copy of those resolutions. Other wise the guy is just trying to rotate on the arrest warrants issued by the Spanish and French judges which were politically motivated.

Another person writes from Kenya saying he/she has been to Rwanda many times and argues that there is a wide gap between the rich and the poor and the urban and rural areas. But if at all the author has been to Rwanda as a tourist, this means he has been in Hotels, national parks and mountains. Unless if he was a researcher a tourist can not easily no why certain phenomenon is the way it is. Tourists just enjoy the beautiful creatures and can not easily know the leadership style and structure of a country or the decision making process in that very country. However, let me try to explain bout his issues of concern. I understand that compared to other African countries, Rwanda has done a lot. Consider for example Kenya where the writer is basing in the villages you still find there people suffering from jiggers, in other sub-Saharan countries you still find people still living in grass thatched houses. In Rwanda, after the genocide many houses were burnt down but today efforts are made to provide shelter to different people. It is normal in almost all countries there is always a gap between the poor and the rich, there is no situation you can find where people are at the same economic level but countries need just to narrow the gap because it can not be eliminated. In this endeavor, the government of Rwanda has tried to narrow the gap. Families for example are being given modern cows under the “one cow one family” program aiming at reducing poverty.

This author also talks about RPF governance as all powerful and all present. I am sure the author did not get time to study the governance system of the country. In the first place we don’t have a single party system in Rwanda. There are nine political parties operating in Rwanda today. These political parties have a forum (the forum of political parties) in which they meet to discuss and determine the way to go for the betterment of the whole country. All these parties are today struggling to recruit as many members as possible and are opening up party offices up to the village level (the smallest administrative unit). In my opinion, this is a sign of political competition. It is therefore unfair to compare the existing system to that of MRND which was a single party rule.

Finally, let me inform the two authors and the readers in general that Rwanda has come from far, from ash and important developments have been made in all aspects of life. People need to make scientific studies other than writing biased information like these two authors. Yes I agree things are not perfect but too much has been done and at least if you compare Rwanda with other neighbors, you will find that Rwanda is not corrupt, well governed, secure and more so having beautiful and clean city and towns. This can be attributed to the leadership of the country that has managed to achieve all that irrespective of the complexity of the society.