Kagame speaks out on third term

President Paul Kagame has reiterated that he is not interested in third term in office and will respect the constitution or what Rwandans will decide in the interest of continued progress and stability in the country after 2017.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

President Paul Kagame has reiterated that he is not interested in third term in office and will respect the constitution or what Rwandans will decide in the interest of continued progress and stability in the country after 2017.

He was addressing journalists at Village Urugwiro today during his second news briefing of the year.

The President said he remains wary of running for a third presidential term even if he believes that Rwandans still have the ultimate decision on important issues of national interest.

"If there is trust that I will do what I have said, I will do relating to what is there, meaning the constitution and so on and so forth, why then would people continue asking this question? Why don’t people just keep the trust and wait?” he said.

Kagame urged journalists and other political analysts to stop trivialising the issue of third term because it creates confusion among citizens who get lost in the debate of whether he is leaving or staying instead of focusing on building their country.

Branding the debate on the third term issue as "childish”, the President said those who don’t trust him on what he said should stop asking him the question because it doesn’t help advance the debate.