OPINION: Rwanda is on the right track when it comes to political pluralism

By Christine Mukabunani

The lazy narrative that Rwanda is a 'one-party state' that leaves 'very little room for dissent' is one that I cannot recognize as a politician who lives in the country and operates in the political arena.

Following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and the military defeat of the genocidal government, Rwandans came together and decided to do politics differently. We chose to create a 'consensual democracy', where no one voice dominated all political space.

As the leader of the Parti Social-Imberakuri and a member of parliament, I have been part of this consensual democracy. 

The Rwanda that I live and work in today is very different from the Rwanda I was born in 1972. I was born during the presidency of Rwanda's first president, Gregoire Kayibanda, an ethnic demagogue whose ruling political party, MDR-Parmehutu, not only systematically and severely discriminated against, persecuted, and repeatedly massacred Tutsis, leading to hundreds of thousands fleeing the country, but also discriminated against Hutus from outside his home region of Nduga (the region around Muhanga District).

A year after I was born, Kayibanda was overthrown in a military coup d'etat by Juvenal Habyarimana, his army chief of staff. 

Habyarimana instituted a one-party system, with everyone in the country belonging to his MRND (Mouvement Révolutionaire National pour le Développement). The discrimination the Tutsis experienced during Kayibanda's regime continued under Habyarimana, with ethnic quotas determining higher education, civil service employment, and entry into the national army.

Furthermore, regional discrimination also came into play, this time favoring Hutus from northern Rwanda due to the fact that they came from Habyarimana's home region. All of this discrimination, sectarianism, corruption, and violence culminated in the fastest genocide in history, with over a million people killed in a mere 100 days. 

The near-total destruction of the Rwandan nation forced a radical rethink in the way politics was structured and conducted. This rethink created the Rwanda of today, where opposition parties like mine do politics of 'shared national development' and not violent, bombastic confrontation.

In this Rwanda, my opposition party colleagues in parliament are able to voice their opinions on the national issues of the day and be heard.

 However, reaching the point where my opposition political party and I find ourselves today has not been an easy journey.

 I first stood for parliament in 2008 as a candidate under the banner of PSD (the Social Democratic Party). After losing that election, I, alongside some colleagues, decided to start our own party to air the views that we felt were being ignored by the party we had previously belonged to.

We wanted to create a party that, unlike PSD, was outside the ruling RPF-coalition, and despite different challenges, we succeeded. On December 14, 2008, Parti Social-Imberakuri was founded. As the first opposition party to be created after the Genocide, we aimed to not only highlight different governance challenges in the country but also provide solutions. 

From 2008, we continued to grow our party, despite the fact that many people remained uncomfortable with our political pitch; this was not unexpected due to the trauma that people still had due to the role that political parties played in the events leading up to and during the Genocide.

We constantly had to explain who we were and what we stood for, but as time went on, we were able to get people to understand that we were what we call 'opposition yubaka' (a non-violent opposition that builds).

In 2013, we stood for parliament and won no seats due to the lack of popular support. However, in 2018, we stood again and won two seats. So, for those who say that an opposition party cannot operate in Rwanda, our journey as a party is a riposte to that assertion. Today, party members across the country are not mistreated, and we are able to peacefully conduct our political affairs. It was not always the case in the past, especially when we had just founded the party. 

The experience that we have had in parliament has been one of respectful dialogue. Despite our different political views, fellow parliamentarians, even those from the ruling party, the RPF, have allowed us the space to have our dissenting voices heard.

As a result of working together with fellow parliamentarians, policies close to our heart, such as increasing teachers' salaries and bringing back nursing as a course at the secondary school level, have been implemented, and we've seen increased financial support for the Mutuelle de Sante health insurance program. 

The challenges that we still face operating in Rwanda as an opposition party can be considered ‘growing pains’. This, again, is not unexpected. However, the fact that we've been able to participate in the legislative process in a constructive manner has gained 'buy-in' from the general public.

This gives me confidence that different political parties, such as my own, will continue to find a place in Rwanda's development journey. After all, we all want the same thing: a country we can all be proud of.

Christine Mukabunani is the Chairperson of Parti Social-Imberakuri and a Member of Parliament in Rwanda