Rwandese MP's Taking Oath

The media around the world has been awash with headlines of how Rwanda has emerged the giant in the field of gender parity in politics. The recently concluded 2008 parliamentary polls closed with women bagging 56.25 percent of the contested seats. These polls in which women scooped 44 seats in the  country’s lower house marked quite a new era in the African and global political arena.

 

In this not-so hotly contested legislative September polls, the predictions came true. The ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) took the lead while (the party always on the second spot) the Social Democratic Party (PSD) maintained its rank with the Liberal Party (PL) behind it.

Something that probably interested the world was that Rwandans voted their women representatives who were to occupy their reserved 24 seats, and the curve was higher for the female gender in the end.

 

This development has been successive. In 2003, Rwanda had 39 women parliamentarians who became part of the 80- member house of chamber of deputies-and it was still a world record, where this small state recorded the highest number of women legislators in Africa and the entire the globe.

Around this time (2003), the UN had set a target for nations to implement a 30 percent female representation in parliament. Here, Kigali moved very quickly to fix an additional 15 seats on top of the stipulated 24 reserved seats.

 

After the recent polls, which resulted in a 56.25 percent win for women, it automatically shows the women will have an upper hand in shaping the country’s future, particularly, in terms of forging more pro-active policies that would drastically turn around this post conflict country.

This was really a moment to toast to Rwanda. At least there’s now an element of gender promotion in her decision making process-though actually it cannot be described as gender parity in Rwanda’s politics since women still outnumber men.   

‘Political gimmick’

However, as the world swings the flag of glory for the Kigali establishment’s promotion of equal opportunity politics, there remains a mystery. The world has either failed to understand the stunt behind Rwanda’s gender politics or it is simply a tactic by the international community to ignore the cruel situation here.

Rwanda has a number of parties for instance RPF, Democratic Republican Movement (Mouvement démocratique républicain), Christian Democratic Party (Parti démocratique chrêtien), Islamic Democratic Party (Parti démocratique islamique), Rwandan Socialist Party (Parti socialiste rwandais), Democratic Union of the Rwandan People (Union démocratique du People rwandais), Social Democratic Party (Parti social démocrate), Liberal Party (Parti libéral) and Party for Progress and Concord (Parti pour le Progrès et la Concorde) among others.

Out of these, a few have managed to survive. Parties like the Democratic Republican Movement, Christian Democratic Party, Islamic Democratic Party, Rwandan Socialist Party and the Democratic Union of the Rwandan People only exist by name.

 

A clear example is PL, where charismatic politicians and statesmen like Polycarp Gatete, Elie Ngirabakunzi and Isaie Murashi were illegitimately pushed out of the house.  These eloquent, vocal and inspirational legislators from the opposition camp were quickly shaping Rwanda’s politics and holding the government accountable. Their noble service was painfully brought to an end by Mr Protais Mitali.

Assisted by Rwanda’s renowned opposition hit men like James Musoni and National Security Service boss Lt Col. Emmanuel Ndahiro (RPF Stalwarts), Mitali, who was ‘bribed’ with a ministerial post of Trade and Commerce bought himself into the high ranks of the party and subsequently threw out the legislators.They simply became victims for bringing RPF into check for the good of Rwanda and her people.       
   
Through similar tactics, opposition has become toothless. It has been incapacitated by a classical syndicated mafia campaign mixed with both political and military intelligence personnel. Most of their leaders have been intimidated hence forcing them into a compromise in RPF interest. Some have threats of the 1994 genocide charges dangling over their heads, although they never participated in this mayhem. The mafia group can easily line up witnesses, and this is not new in Rwanda’s field of dirty politics.  

While some have been “bribed” into offices, where they enjoy state privileges like 24-hour air-conditioning, foreign trips and allowances and have buried their political ambitions, it is a harsh story on another end. Others simply fear to have their weight thrown behind bars on faked charges of defilement, corruption and abuse of office, which has been so much prominent in Kigali.

Our dear statesmen, who would be checking the excesses of the RPF have been bundled under the league that compulsorily agreed to enter into a courtship of inconvenience with it (RPF) in the infamous coalition dubbed  Coalition Rwandan Patriotic Front.

Opposition politicians are choking in an increasingly fragile environment so hostile to them, but this oppressive scenario has become normal to the world. They have been reduced to the story of a ‘cry baby.’Many observer teams in the recently concluded polls in Rwanda produced clean scripts in praise of Rwanda in the aftermath of the parliamentary electoral process, even when the process looked very traditional.

In fact, the EU and the League of Human Rights in the Great Lakes region (LDGL) sounded an alarm in this direction. LDGL announced widespread irregularities in the exercise that included poor quality of the ballot, failure to seal ballot boxes, widespread lack of witnesses for independent candidates and political parties apart from those of the RPF, low qualification of Chief Electoral Officers, intemperate soldiers, policemen, village headmen (Imidugudu) and elements of the Local Defense Force in some polling stations among others.It subsequently recommended that observers be allowed to participate in all elections, even in the compilation of results by National Electoral Commission.
 
Instead, such observations were treated with hostility, and it is obvious that, while EU can’t be ignored, chances are very high that the Kigali establishment will ban whistle blowers like LDGL from monitoring elections in future-and still the world will remain silent. Rwanda has become a one party dominant state with RPF in power. Opposition parties are cuffed and have less or no ability to move anything-and more painfully they have no real chance of gaining power.

It is true that voting majority women in parliament is a success. However, possibilities are very high that they will have no change in Kigali’s unitary government under an authoritarian style of leadership.In such a hostile political arena, they will have no option but to become ‘Yes MPs’, which is a deep cry in Rwanda, a country just emerging from ashes, and in dire need of one common good-democracy.  

Most political analysts have concluded that the new women MPs elect will be seat-fillers, who are in the lower legislative chamber to please the government in the chase for the buttered side of bread. If the alarming situation of suppressing multiparty democracy and gross violation of human rights, especially, in exercising their rights to leadership and good governance remain unabated in Rwanda, it is inevitable to say that whatever the government's intentions in building the Rwandan woman's solidarity, the results will be disastrous.

It is useless for the world to celebrate gender parity in Rwanda’s politics when actually the 4.7 million registered voters out of a population of more than 9 million here are going to the polls in the interest of the government.

If the West can’t see this, then Africans should give a hand to Rwandans who are craving for democracy. It is time for the world to pause and have a rethink of Rwanda’s destiny, and stand up to be counted in influencing change at this time when people in this post genocide state cry for a new dawn, a world where they can all participate and be heard.