By Frank Kamuntu
Rwanda’s all-powerful President Paul Kagame was sworn in on Sunday for a fourth term after sweeping to victory in elections last month with more than 99% of the vote.
Several dozen heads of state and other dignitaries from African nations joined the inauguration ceremony at a packed 45,000-seat stadium in Kigali, where crowds had started gathering from the early morning.
Kagame took the oath of office before Chief Justice Faustin Ntezilyayo, pledging to “preserve peace and national sovereignty, consolidate national unity.”
The outcome of the July 15 poll was never in doubt for the iron-fisted Kagame, who has ruled the small African nation since the 1994 genocide, as de facto leader and then president.
He won 99.18% of ballots cast to secure another five years in power, according to the National Electoral Commission.
Rights activists said the 66-year-old’s overwhelming victory was a stark reminder of the lack of democracy in Rwanda.
Only two candidates were authorized to run against him out of eight applicants, with several prominent Kagame critics barred.
Democratic Green Party leader Frank Habineza scraped into second place with 0.5 percent of the vote against 0.32 percent for independent Philippe Mpayimana.
DRC Cease-fire Talks
Kagame is credited with rebuilding a ruined nation after the genocide, when Hutu extremists unleashed 100 days of vicious bloodletting targeting the Tutsi minority, killing around 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis but also Hutu moderates.
But rights activists and opponents say he rules in a climate of fear, crushing any dissent with intimidation, arbitrary detentions, killings and enforced disappearances.
Kigali is also accused of stoking instability in the east of its much larger neighbor the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Angola’s President Joao Lourenco, among those attending Sunday’s ceremony, was due to have private talks with Kagame on a DRC ceasefire deal, the Angolan presidency said.
Luanda brokered the agreement last month after a meeting between the foreign ministers of DRC and Rwanda, which is accused of backing the M23 rebel group fighting Kinshasa’s armed forces.
But on August 4, the day the deal was supposed to take effect, M23 rebels — who have seized territory in the east since launching a new offensive at the end of 2021 — captured a town on the border with Uganda.
With 65 percent of the population aged under 30, Kagame is the only leader most Rwandans have ever known.
“I proudly cast my vote for president Kagame and made it a priority to be here today to witness this historic inauguration,” said Tania Iriza, a 27-year-old trader, one of the tens of thousands who turned out for the ceremony.
“His leadership has been transformative for our nation. Under his leadership, Rwanda has risen from our tragic past and forged a path towards prosperity, unity and innovation.”
Kagame has won every presidential election he has contested, each time with more than 93 percent of the ballot.
In 2015, he oversaw controversial constitutional amendments that shortened presidential terms to five years from seven but reset the clock for the Rwandan leader, allowing him to potentially rule until 2034.
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