Rwandan President Sworn In After 99% Election Win

Paul Kagame has been sworn in for a fourth term as Rwanda’s president after winning 99% of the vote in last month’s election.

Some praise Kagame for bringing peace and stability to his country after the 1994 genocide, others accuse him of leading a repressive regime in a country where ordinary people are afraid to openly criticize him.

Human rights groups say the margin of his election victory proves that there is no democracy in Rwanda.

In the July 15 elections, only two candidates were allowed to run against Kagame.

In his four presidential elections, he always received at least 93% of the vote.

Among the thousands who attended the ceremony in the packed Amahoro National Stadium in the capital Kigali were several African heads of state. The stadium had a capacity of 45,000.

In his oath of office, Mr Kagame promised to preserve peace and national sovereignty and consolidate national unity.

He also promised that he would “never use the powers given to me for personal interests”.

“Should I fail to keep this oath, I will be subject to the strict laws,” he said.

Kagame has been the real ruler of Rwanda since his then rebel armies came to power after a genocide in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered and the genocidal regime was ousted.

Since then, Rwanda has been relatively stable and Kagame has aimed to transform the country into the ‘Singapore of Africa’.

The capital is one of the cleanest cities in Africa and is the home of the African Basketball Leaguea partnership with the NBA. It hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2022 and international stars such as Kendrick Lamar gave concerts there.

Mr Kagame often criticises the West, but he has also tried to forge alliances, for example with the UK over the now scrapped policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwandaagreed with the former Conservative government.

While life in Rwanda has improved, Kagame has been accused of destabilizing the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Just days before the July elections, a UN report said there were around 4,000 Rwandan troops in DR Congo, accused of supporting the M23 rebel group, sparking a bitter conflict between the two countries.

Under Kagame’s leadership, Rwandan troops have twice invaded Congo, saying they were hunting down Hutu militias involved in the 1994 genocide.