The PANAFRICAN Review Magazine
they would nostalgically refer to times past when it meant something to be a member of the RPF . With nothing to show for a sense of direction or conviction , it would not take long before the corrupt wing also loses power . But in the process , a disaster will have been nurtured , perhaps unwittingly .
The second death sentence is to society . Accountability is a sufficient basis for state legitimacy . Elsewhere , political systems that have failed on accountability have invested in ethnicity-based politics as a shortcut for state legitimacy . In Rwanda , therefore , only accountability prevents the return of ethnicitybased politics . Ethnicity-based politics is a form of corruption : it ’ s a moral corruption that places society on a hierarchy of those who are deserving and those who aren ’ t . At times , it operates at the level of nepotism and when it is strained by any pressure , its logic descends to determining who is deserving to live
or to die , as our country ’ s history demonstrates . If corruption is allowed to triumph , it will be accompanied by this type of politics . In this type of politics , the logic of elimination has been , in the past , justified as a legitimate political choice in Rwanda . This is the existential threat to society that those who engage in corruption don ’ t see because they consider it something that is far removed from their lives . It ’ s not .
In the end , therefore , the existential threat to the RPF explains its obsession with accountability . As bad as this sounds for the party , the second death sentence — a threat to society — is much worse . Faced with this twin-threat , the punishment is often imminent , swift , and harshest for those who should know better . They are not being punished for stealing per se ; they are punished for placing the party and society on the path of destruction .
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IS RWANDA ’ S POLITICAL SPACE CLOSED ? IT DEPENDS
Swearing-in of New Government Officials | Kigali , 1 June 2020
By Lonzen Rugira
Rwanda ’ s willfully misunderstood political system was on display last week as President Kagame inaugurated the incoming Senate . President Kagame is , obviously , the Head of State and member of the RPF-Inkotanyi political party . The President of the Senate , the country ’ s number two , is Augustin Iyamuremye of the Social Democratic
Party ( PSD ). His Vice Presidents are two women , Dr . Alvera Mukabaramba of the Party for Progress and Concord ( PPC ) and Esperance Nyirasafari of the RPF .
The Speaker of the Lower Chamber , also a woman , is Donatile Mukabalisa of the Liberal Party ( PL ). Her deputies are Sheikh Musa Fazil Harelimana of the Ideal Democratic Party ( PDI ) and Eda Mukabagwiza , another woman , of the RPF-Inkotanyi . This is the