Meeting with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation Ambassador Joseph W. Mutaboba, Permanent Secretary

Ambassador Mutaboba, former ambassador to the USA, presented Rwanda’s path to democracy. The postcolonial authorities did a worse job than the colonial authorities. A mono-party system evolved. Dissatisfied citizens asked that they should not be ostracized because of who they were or where they came from. The political parties, policies and educational system were exclusionary. Tutsi and some Hutu were discriminated against. And the RPF was born from this.

Rwanda’s political history has never seen a system where power moves from bottom upwards. The post 1994 system attempts to break from the cyclic past. It allows people to chose their own leaders – beginning at village level. There may be problems of illiteracy, but people know what they want – it is a question of empowerment.

The country now waits for parliamentary and presidential elections. The Constitution has to be changed. The government visited many countries – South Africa, Eritrea, Mozambique – to examine their constitutions after a difficult history, and look at how they were designed to prevent further conflict. The game is the elections, the game are the political parties. But people have to play by the rules of the constitution. The constitution will be there forever and not changeable with a change of government.

Where are we today? The Ambassador said that we have gone a long way forward. We can elect our leaders. We can sack our leaders. He said that democratization should also involve decentralization. Power should not be focused on one group of people in Kigali. There must also be decentralization of funding