Rwandans are voting in presidential polls on Monday, July 15 in an orderly, even convivial atmosphere – an exercise that caps three weeks of campaigning (during which I also had the opportunity to crisscross the country as part of a media team covering President Kagame’s campaign).
It’s been a memorable three weeks during which one got a feel of the country’s mood, and here is what it was: Rwandans were engaged in an activity to give Paul Kagame and the ruling RPF-Inkotanyi another mandate, to keep doing what they’ve been doing.
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Rwandans turned up in massive crowds at each of the venues where Kagame was campaigning. They sang and danced to RPF party songs, shouted, cheered, and generally had a great time.
It was more of a festive season than anything else everywhere, with performances by some of the country’s biggest music stars enhancing the party atmosphere. Bruce Melodie was there, as was songstress Bwiza with whom they partnered to perform "Ogera”, arguably the hit song of the campaign season.
Dr Claude too was there. And Leonard Nsabimana (of "Ndandambara” fame). And Butera "Knowless”. And King James. And more.
The musicians would perform, and local leaders and other individuals – people that live wherever the campaign stop was – would speak, giving extensive testimony about the incredible ways their lives, and the lives of their communities, have been transformed under the Kagame administration.
And then the president – who would have entered to a frenzy of ululations and cheering from his supporters – would step up a little, raised stage to address the crowd, talk about the salient issues, and promise to deliver more development to the local community. Afterwards there would be more singing and dancing.
Inevitably however critics that talk in bad faith have been saying these are "sham campaigns” of a "sham election”, their contention being that no competitive elections are like those of Rwanda.
The critics assert that Rwandans cannot be happy with the whole election exercise, but that they cannot dare speak up, allegedly because freedom of speech is suppressed in Rwanda, so "the ruling party will have everything its way”!
What such criticism cannot explain however is how it can happen that masses of allegedly frightened people can, from one rally to another, be so loudly, and so expressively happy each time Kagame turns up, and behave like they’ve seen a rock star.
I mean, if I am a person that supposedly lives under oppression, you possibly can make me attend some politician’s rally against my wishes. But would it be possible to also force me to feign joy, and shout my heart out like people have been doing at the mere sight of the RPF candidate? And swoon (in the case of the younger women), and other manifestations of elation?
I highly doubt it. No one can be forced to feign the kind emotions – of love, of fandom, of true appreciation or gratitude – that’ve been on display at Kagame’s rallies.
The truth is much simpler. Right-thinking Rwandan truly appreciate the peace and security, and almost unimaginable socio-economic progress the country has achieved under Kagame and RPF-Inkotanyi.
Almost every Rwandan I’ve talked to on the campaign trail (in Nyamagabe, Rusizi, Nyamasheke, Karongi, Bugesera, and elsewhere) has their "before and after” stories, and how clear it is to them the tremendous progress of the past three decades could only have happened with leadership such as Kagame’s. And so, they were ready to heap every one of their vote on the incumbent, and came in masses to show it to him.
The thing that seems to most disturb the critics of Rwanda though is that this country (from day one of the RPF taking power) has tended to do things their own way, and won’t ever take courses of action that, we know only too well, would lead to certain ruin.
Many of these people (who like to slam the Rwandan way of politics) are adamant that campaigns or elections can only be legitimate in an atmosphere of adversarial, pluralist politics, with leaders and supporters of different political parties regularly engaging in heated rhetoric, exchange insults and abuse, and other confrontational behavior.
They either are ignorant about what has happened in Rwanda in the past whenever something called a campaign, a referendum, or an election took place (hint: ethnic cleansing, pogroms and genocide).
But we don’t have to look only at our past to see what very usually happens when imported, Western-style "democratic” exercises – also known as the ideal that everyone is supposed to copy – are applied in Africa.
On this continent a Western-style campaign or election often leaves an aftermath like something one reads about following a natural disaster, a hurricane, or tsunami. Political violence will erupt that results in razed houses, mass looting, badly injured or maimed people, mass graves, and throngs of people fleeing their homes to become internally displaced persons or refugees fleeing across borders.
The new Rwanda looked at its history, and looked at what has long roiled Africa, and said no thanks! We will do things our way. We won’t allow violent people (such as Victoire Ingabire) derail our progress, but we will create a consensus, "big tent” politics that unites our political parties to work together nurturing a better future.
The rule is (even when some decide to join the RPF-Inkotanyi in that one or prefer to campaign separately like Green Party’s Frank Habineza of the Green or the independent Philippe Mpayimana) there can be no room for violence, confrontation, or hate speech in our politics. Only brotherly love.
Or, as we’ve seen at Kagame’s rallies, outpourings of positive emotion in appreciation of a politician for a job well-done.