In a Sunday Nation (a Kenyan paper) article of last May 12 entitled “Kagame is a shining star for African leaders to follow”, Mr. David M. Kigo outlines some of the correct things President Paul Kagame has done at the service of his people in particular. And refers to the good work the president did generally, at the service of Africans as chair of the AU. The latter responsibility which he continues to execute as chair of the continental body’s Reform Committee. By the way, I’ve chosen the adjective “correct” pointedly, being Rwandan. I’ve not used “nice”, one of the partisan adjectives some outsiders expect us to use, having taken us for sycophants and praise-singers who dare not talk truth to power. When we point out such “many firsts” that we have performed under the leadership of President Kagame, which Mr. Kigo recognises, it’ll be attributed to our “fear”! When a man leads you into achieving the seemingly impossible, Mr. Kigo, would you say you “have no choice but to admire” him? Sure, we have a choice. And that is, to admire him. Rwandans are not afflicted by any qualms that they may be unaware of the need to “strive to nurture democracy”. Because they know they are not merely “risen from the ashes like the proverbial Phoenix”. They are products of a worse place, a place with no name; from nothingness. “Ashes” is something; it’s a place with a name. Genocide is not. Therefore, democracy necessarily guides Rwanda. You cannot vanquish a genocidal monster that involved a superpower when you are not a united force. And democracy perforce sprouts out of the fertile ground that’s the unity of a people. It’s a given. No society has ever been oppressed into unity. Rwanda “hurtling into the pit it was once in”? Worry not your considerate heart, Mr. Kigo. Those are the ill-informed, toy acquired-beliefs churning in the idle mind of your ‘katumani’ compatriot, a loudly self-trumpeted “SUNY distinguished professor”. Professor Makau Mutua, he of the bursts of abusive one-liner sentences that are as artificially composite as the ‘katumani’ maize of Ukambani, his birth region in Kenya. His birthplace, yes, though he feels more American than Trump but is bearer of an equally trumpable ego. His likes are Africans who parrot these Western news media construct-tags like “Rwanda, a deadly police state” because they swallowed them whole without chewing and sifting. They’ve taken them as scientific truths, for being of Western origin and nothing but. Yet a simple visit to a neighbouring country would give them the truly scientific truth. And, in the bargain, the surprise of a warm welcome – and no thought at all to the insults. But I digress….I was trying to allay Mr. Kigo’s, and anybody else’s, concerns. In this nation-state, you as a visitor only need to attend one of these Rwandan Citizens-Outreach-programme sessions to see that the citizen is queen/king. In these no-holds-barred sessions, if you are a government or affiliated organisation official and you’ve fallen short on your duties, then help you God! The citizens will bare it all on you. The riot act that’ll be read you, acha tu! The ‘chief comptroller’ of the officials, head of this nation-state, will lead the riot act, of course. Not that, get it right, he himself will not account for his own short-comings. Only, for a man who hardly rests from his work, it’s hard to find any. For, if all were keen of ear and listened to him; officials quick of limb and mind; devoid of an iota of self-interest; more; like him, this country would be laureate of a multitude of firsts. If there is any oppression here, then, maybe it’s of public officials to measure up. And who wouldn’t wish for more? After all, people power, that’s the meaning of democracy. As for gagging the media, it’d be folly of the highest order for a country that’s overflowing with totally unrestricted social media outlets. Or are any of these groggy police-state-accusation town-criers entertaining the absurd idea that this government should give agents of terrorist grenade-throwers free rein to maim and kill innocent Rwandans? And, adding insult to injury, let them run for political office? These “dictatorship”, “police state”, etc., accusations are the ‘wind that the West broke’ onto this country. It bounced but they’ll keep fanning it to hang around her head like a demonic halo. Just after 1994, you should have seen the international (read “Western”) non-governmental organisations that swarmed this country. In every nook and cranny, there was an NGO “without borders”: Relief Aid Without Borders, Justice Dispensers Without Borders, Reporters Without Borders, say it. All pirated imitations of the genuinely serious Médecins Sans Frontière! Their veiled effort? To ring-fence Rwandans into ethnic constructs and swat government effort to re-forge their unity. For chucking out these Western “sans frontières”. For humiliating and hurting the ego of one in the Western wake (a group of feeding vultures). For breaking the West’s spell on Rwandans. The jury is out: this government must forever wear that halo of a pariah state. But les faits sont têtus. Against all odds, the truth will out! The views expressed in this article are of the author.
