This week, Rwanda marks the 22nd Liberation Daysince President Paul Kagame’s Rwanda Patriotic Front swept into Kigali and ended 100 days of untold massacre of citizens.
On April 6, 1994, then President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down over Rwandan airspace sparking off atrocities that, in 100 days, claimed the lives of at least one million people, particularly from the Tutsi community. Rwanda’s two dominant communities, the Tutsi and the Hutu had for long, treated each other with suspicion. The plane crash lit the match that nearly decimated Rwanda.
Yet despite that, Rwanda has risen from the ashes of genocide to become a powerhouse on the African continent. The rifts have been healed and now, Rwanda stands head and shoulder above many countries in the region. Rwanda has taken off socially, economically and politically.
No doubt, lessons from the genocide have helped Rwanda model a socially cohesive society.
Economically, Rwanda has maintained a steady growth rate of 7 per cent annually for the last ten years.
Having learnt what toxic tribalism is capable of, Rwanda has purposefully steered away from that path. Though at times this has happened at the expense of freedom of speech and expression, a key ingredient in democracy.
For beneath the positive narrative lies a dark side. Mr Kagame has been accused of turning into an autocrat with little patience for divergent opinion. Last year, the Constitution was changed to allow him to seek a third seven-year term next year followed by two five-year terms that could see him rule until 2034.
Surely, no one should begrudge the people of Rwanda their choice of a leader. But the last thing Rwanda needs is another strongman.
Suffice to say that the best gift Mr Kagame could bequeath Rwanda is a truly functioning democracy.
