At 18, Rwanda has mature lessons to offer

All children love to get to that point where they can be considered to be adults and mature enough to make their own decisions. Once one clocks 18, in many societies they are considered an adult who can mange fine by themselves. It is now 18 years since Rwanda descended to the dark valleys of humanity. In a space of just 100 days, over a million people were murdered in what is now known as the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. When it all happened, there were no caring pronouncements from the then leaders of France, Britain and US as we see now with, Libya and Syria among others. When Rwandans were dying there was no George Clooney or Jason Russell (of the Kony 2012 video). People simply watched as an elaborate plan to exterminate the Tutsi was vigorously executed until the Rwanda Patriotic Force/Army, took charge and stopped the genocide then took charge of a lawless and destroyed society, both in terms of infrastructure as well as the social fabric. 18 years down the road, Rwanda has managed to dust itself and get back on the track and to surge forward much faster than other countries that never had to go through the horror that was the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. What happened in Rwanda 18 years ago continues to be a vital lesson for all Rwandans and other countries as well. Each time there is a major conflict in another country; commentators will be quick to say they do not want “another Rwanda” to happen. In the recent past it is Kenya. In 2007, an electoral contest that was seemingly going against the incumbent was quickly overturned by a series of tally sheets tampering. President Mwai Kibaki was sworn in at a private but hasty process. It was not long before the country was engulfed by violence that started as an expression of dissatisfaction with the electoral fraud that Bwana Samuel Kivutu of the now defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya had just engineered. The violence soon turned to targeted killings between tribes especially in the rift valley area.When the dust settled, over 1500 Kenyans had perished with hundreds of thousands displaced, many of whom have not been resettled since. It is now 2012 and our Kenyan brothers are warming up for another general election to replace president Kibaki. Tribalism is always common in some of the countries we belong to. And, rogue politicians with selfish interests always fan the tribal flames with their incendiary speeches. Right now, Leon Mugesera, a man who incited people to kill has resorted to delaying tactics by arguing that he should not be tried in Kinyarwanda (the language in which his poisonous remarks were made). The politicians, who incite others, love to use the language that is best understood. They employ emotive sentence constructions in order to convince the audience that they need to join hands and fight. The notion of “us against them” is one whose delivery they seem to have mastered effectively. With an election on the horizon, already, some Kenya politicians are talking carelessly. The games of us against them are already being rehearsed using tribal groupings such as Gikuyu, Embu, Meru association (GEMA) and the Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu communities (KAMATUSA). Already the GEMA group has ‘anointed’ Uhuru Kenyatta as their leader while KAMATUSA prefer William Ruto to carry their torch. Such groups only serve to alienate other Kenyans as their focus on narrow political interests that can only divide the country further at a time when it needs to unite and vote people based on principles and not tribes. As Kenyans prepare for the next elections, they need to remember the lessons from Rwanda such as the fact that the best way to deal with genocide is prevention of the same. Politicians should talk about their programmes and not their tribes. Mature Rwanda has managed to go beyond all this and even offer inspiring lessons on governance by keeping corruption at near zero levels, while providing services to its people leaving many visitors to this country in admiration. It is very important to know your past if you are to determine a better future for yourself. This is why Rwanda remembers the events of 1994 annually so as to keep the NEVER AGAIN ideal alive.