By Andrew M. Mwenda President Paul Kagame last week won presidential elections by 95 percent of the vote. Such high performance was common in Sadam Hussein’s Iraq and other dictatorships. Basing on this analogy, many observers have concluded his victory was a product of political repression. But such an approach …
Read More »Do the Hutu and Tutsi of Rwanda nurse ancient hatred?
By Andrew M. Mwenda In the summer of 1995, former US president, Jimmy Carter, organised a conference on Rwanda in Tunis to ‘convince the RPF to be more ethnically inclusive by appointing Hutu politicians to cabinet’. In attendance were the presidents of Rwanda’s neighbours: Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko, Uganda’s Yoweri …
Read More »Rwanda not yet a success story nor a normal country
By Frederick Golooba-Mutebi Since he wrote his ‘Is Rwanda an African Success Story’ (The Independent, July 09-15), Timothy Kalyegira, easily the most committed of media skeptics about Rwanda and its President, Paul Kagame, has been the subject of much-animated discussion in Kigali. On a recent visit there, almost everyone I …
Read More »Is there no reconciliation in Rwanda?
By Pascal Gahamanyi There is a lot of debate about Rwanda in Uganda, conducted in Ugandan newspapers and radio stations and the participants are Ugandan citizens. Those involved – whether as critics of the government in Kigali or as sympathisers are largely Ugandans. Rwandans wonder why this is so. Possibly …
Read More »Is Rwanda really unravelling?
By Andrew M. Mwenda Recent events in Rwanda have filled my inbox. For example, a journalist in Uganda wrote to me on Skype in celebratory mood: ‘Finally your Rwanda (sic) is unravelling; pretty fast, very dramatically: Newspapers suspended ahead of elections, grenade blasts, senior army officers arrested, endless talk …
Read More »Here is what Rwanda needs
By Andrew M. Mwenda In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama says he has always been troubled by the gap between the magnitude of America’s challenges and the smallness of its politics. This makes even more sense in Africa. Nothing demonstrates it better than presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire and those …
Read More »Will Ingabire be Rwanda’s saviour?
By Andrew M. Mwenda Since her return to Rwanda as a presidential candidate, Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire has animated media interest. The main issue in her campaign is her claim that ‘those who killed the Hutu in the 1994 genocide have not been tried.’ This is another way of saying the …
Read More »Rwanda braces for first IPO
By Kelvin Odoobo Rwanda’s fledging stock market is set for a major boost as government prepares to list 25% of its 30% stake in the national brewer BRALIRWA. According to the operations manager of Capital Markets Advisory Council (CMAC), Celestin Rwabukumba, the process of issuing an initial public offer (IPO) …
Read More »Why Rwanda wins world prizes
By Andrew M. Mwenda On September 9, the Doing Business Report of the World Bank Group ranked Rwanda as the world’s top reformer in creating a business friendly environment. The report also showed that within one year, Rwanda jumped from number 139 to number 67 out of 186 countries sampled …
Read More »Rwanda means business
By Kabona Esiara Rwanda ranked best business destination, Best world reformer The Doing Business 2010 report by the World Bank Group has ranked Rwanda the top reformer in the world for passing seven reforms encouraging domestic and foreign investments. The reforms create a better legal framework, streamline procedures, reduce bureaucracy, …
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