NAIROBI: Of late, a number of media outlets and political commentators have been misleading the public either deliberately or by failure to understand the context under which the current process of amending the Rwandan constitution is being carried out.
Overwhelmingly, people the world over agree that Rwanda under the leadership of President Paul Kagame has been immensely transformed across all sectors of national life.
Indeed, lives of millions of Rwandans, especially the poor, have been tremendously changed for the better.
This is what inspired the 3.7 million Rwandans (about 72 per cent of the voting population) to petition Parliament to amend article 101 of the Rwandan constitution to allow President Paul Kagame to continue leading the country.
Clearly, this is a constitutional right and strong expression of the will of the people of Rwanda to determine their own destiny.
It is therefore absurd that some politicians, journalists and political commentators have failed to acknowledge the fact that it is the Rwandan people demanding lifting of term limits and not the President.
Some people have wrongly continued to claim that President Paul Kagame is engineering the constitutional change on term limits to allow him to remain in office beyond his term.
Like in many civilised societies, any constitutional amendment follows established procedures depending on circumstances.
In the case of Rwanda, Article 193 of Rwandan constitution gives power to the people to amend the constitution.
Following the massive petitions and subsequent countrywide consultations, on July 14, 2015, both chambers of Rwandan Parliament voted 79 out of 80 for the Lower Chamber and 23 out of 24 in the Senate respectively in favor of amending Article 101 of the constitution.
The next step is to constitute a constitutional review commission, which will work with members of Parliament to look into what exactly needs to be amended.
Once the commission has submitted its report to Parliament and two-thirds in each house vote YES, Rwandans will proceed to the referendum.
It should be noted that political evolution of any society including that of Rwanda should happen within its own historical, cultural and political context.
Rwanda’s unique history is defined by its terrible past of mass killings and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and a society that was deeply divided along ethnic lines.
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Fresh memories of the tragic history and President Kagame’s indisputable track record in transforming Rwanda into an indivisible and successful nation are the two major underlying factors that have shaped the political choice by the people of Rwanda.
Surely, there are best practices that should be good for all of us; like effective service delivery, fighting corruption, empowering youth and women and many others.
Countries like UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia have achieved some of these indicators and many other human development indices without necessarily having term limits in their political dispensation.
Therefore, with or without term limits, it is utterly wrong to think that democratic processes should be uniform, without taking into account the uniqueness of any society.
If we all agree that democracy is based on the will of the people, then the views, wishes and aspirations of Rwandans should be respected as we respect others choices.
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