In Rwanda vote, 'people knew the winner a long time ago'
RODNEY MUHUMUZA AND IGNATIUS SSUUNA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 2, 2017 Updated: August 2, 2017 9:28am
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) In the eyes of some voters Philippe Mpayimana, a
fresh-faced former journalist who is running for president of Rwanda, is
just a clown. Otherwise, they ask, why would he be running against longtime
President Paul Kagame?
Some of Mpayimana's campaign venues are nearly empty of people, underscoring
a widespread belief among Rwandans that Friday's election is just another
coronation for Kagame, who won 93 percent of the votes in the last election.
In the tidy capital, Kigali, there is little hint of the coming vote.
Presidential candidates are barred from putting campaign posters in most
public places, including schools and hospitals. The electoral commission
vets candidates' campaign messages, warning that their social media accounts
could be blocked otherwise.
"Some people here even don't know names of candidates running against
Kagame," said Chris Munyaneza, a university lecturer who lives in Kigali.
"People are not bothered."
"There is no excitement because people knew the winner a long time ago,"
said another Kigali resident who insisted on anonymity for his safety.
Kagame has been de facto leader or president of the East African nation of
12 million people since his rebels ended its 1994 genocide. While he remains
popular for presiding over impressive economic growth, he inspires fear
among some Rwandans who say he uses the powers of the state to remove
perceived opponents.
Three potential candidates for Friday's election were disqualified by the
electoral commission for allegedly failing to fulfil certain requirements,
including collecting enough signatures. Two others Mpayimana and Frank
Habineza of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda were cleared to run.
The 59-year-old Kagame has already claimed victory, telling a rally in July
that the winner of the election is already known: "The day of the
presidential elections will just be a formality." He pointed to a
constitutional amendment after a referendum in 2015 that allows him to stay
in power until 2034.
Ahead of the polls, tension has been growing following the mass retirement
of over 800 army officers rare before an election and the reported
arrest of at least four senior officers. The arrests include a man related
to the late Col. Patrick Karegeya, a former intelligence chief who became a
prominent dissident but was found dead in January 2014, apparently
strangled, in South Africa.
Karegeya's widow, who now lives in the United States, said of Kagame: "I
think he is a man with an endless hatred, even to those he has put in the
grave like my husband." Leah Karegeya said six family members, including her
sister Goretti Kabuto, are in detention in Rwanda because of their ties to
her late husband.
Two decades of often deadly attacks on political opponents, journalists and
rights activists have created a "climate of fear" ahead of Rwanda's
election, Amnesty International said in a report last month.
"There are many unknown prisons in this country, and many people have
vanished and died there," said one supporter of opposition candidate
Habineza, Charlotte Umutesi. "My brother disappeared for a long time and we
didn't find him until much later. We need a change before it is too late."
Rwandan authorities, including Kagame, deny critics' claims that the
government targets dissidents for assassination or disappearances.
Others insist the president has widespread support. Eric Ndushabandi, a
professor of political science at the National University of Rwanda, said
many admire Kagame as a "visionary" leader who united a country scarred by
the 1994 genocide, in which over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were
massacred by Hutu extremists.
"People are influenced by the traumatic situation of the genocide and
conflictual politics in the past and no one is ready to go back,"
Ndushabandi said.
Meanwhile opposition rallies often flop, apparently because some people are
afraid to be seen associating with the president's opponents.
In the southeastern town of Nyamata, where independent candidate Mpayimana
held his first campaign rally, only about 15 people most of them children
attended. Police last week arrested the mayor of the western district of
Rubavu, Jeremie Sinamenye, over allegations that he and some of his staff
prevented voters from attending Mpayimana's rallies.
The other candidate running against Kagame, Habineza, called his campaign an
act of "hope" despite the obvious risks. The organizing secretary of
Habineza's party went missing two years ago and remains unaccounted for. The
body of his deputy, Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, was discovered in 2010 with a
severed head in the southern town of Butare.
That killing followed the shooting death of newspaper journalist
Jean-Leonard Rugambage, whose tabloid had been suspended by Rwandan
authorities.
"Running against President Kagame comes with courage," Habineza said.
Muhumuza reported from Kampala, Uganda. AP videographer Khaled Kazziha in
Nairobi, Kenya contributed.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko"
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