President Paul Kagame has said that politics based on inclusion and accountability, public spaces free of hate speech and unity are the key instruments that have made Rwanda become what it is to date.

Kagame made these remarks while delivering an address at the Harvard Institute of Politics on Friday.

He said that following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, which claimed over one million lives, Rwanda may have seemed like an improbable choice to achieve real prosperity for Rwandans within a generation.

"Today Rwanda is a country transformed. We live with our past, but it does not define us or hold us back,” Kagame said.

On various objective measures of growth by local and international bodies, Rwanda has proved to be a consistent top performer, not only in Africa, but globally in business climate, health, education, crime, anti-corruption, women’s empowerment, trust in public institutions, and perceptions of personal well-being and freedom.

Quoting Amartya Sen, President Kagame added that Rwandans must have the "freedom to lead the kind of lives that they have reason to value”:

"Rwandans value a politics based on inclusion and accountability, Rwandans value public spaces free of hate speech, Rwandans value unity,” Kagame said.

"We have good reason to value the choices we make because they respond directly to our past experiences and our aspirations for the future,” he added.

Constitutional amendment was timely necessity

Commenting on the recent referendum to amend the constitution, Kagame said that the referendum did not reflect anything less than the preference of a broad majority of Rwandans, but thirst for continuity to reach their potential.

"Our constitutional order is both distinctively Rwandan and squarely within the mainstream of democratic practice. It works for us, and there is ample evidence for that. But it will also endure, because the means of renewal and adaptation are provided for. The recent referendum is a useful example.”

"First, what was on citizens’ minds was brought out clearly in the course of wide public conversation taking place over years. Rwandans, most of whom are under thirty, are more concerned with reaching our potential, than sliding back into a dark past,” Kagame said.

Kagame noted that through referendum, Rwandans ‘wanted what they wanted’, strikingly expressed by 98.3 per cent voting for constitutional change, which—among other amendments—allows Kagame to run in 2017 while reducing term limits from 7 to 5 years.

"Continuity of leadership was found to be as important, given our context, as the principle of term limits, which was maintained. When the time comes, and it will be sooner rather than later, Rwandans will choose a person who has repeatedly proven herself, or perhaps even himself, directly to them,” he said.

However, he noted that the reaction from the international community to amending the constitution has been instructive.

Kagame said that democracy in Africa is thought to be so dogmatic because the world thinks that Africa is still incapable of anything better than mimicry, which he disagrees.

"If it is inherently undemocratic to amend constitutions, why do they contain provisions for doing so, everywhere?” he questioned.

Kagame said that choices that are made democratically, for Rwanda’s benefit should not be a lasting impediment to good relations with the international community.

Kagame reiterated that Rwanda is moving forward, "Our progress is real and it is being driven by innovations and institutions that work.”

President Kagame, also joined the Harvard Business School microeconomics of competitiveness class as a guest lecturer for the third time, on Friday.

Kagame spoke on the challenges the country has had to overcome in order to achieve the level of progress registered today, as well as the lessons the rest of the world can learn from Rwanda’s journey:

"Our situation, Rwanda’s case is a very complex one but it is full of lessons not only for Rwandans, but for the rest of the world specifically for Africa. Rwanda showed humans are capable of the worst but also how 22 years down the road, reforms in Rwanda can serve as an example”.

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