Joe McConnell
Paul Kagame has been sworn in for a fourth term as Rwanda’s president after winning 99 percent of the vote in last month’s election.
While some praise Mr 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 criticize him openly.
Human rights groups say his election victory margin is evidence of Rwanda’s lack of democracy.
In the July 15 elections, only two candidates could compete with Mr Kagame for victory.
In his four presidential elections he has always obtained at least 93% of the vote.
Among the thousands who attended the ceremony held in the crowded 45,000-seat Amahoro National Stadium in the capital Kigali were several African heads of state.
In his oath of office, Mr. Kagame pledged to preserve peace and national sovereignty and consolidate national unity.
He also pledged to “never use the powers granted to him for personal interests.”
“If I fail to honor this oath, I could be subject to the full rigors of the law,” he said.
Mr Kagame has been the real power in Rwanda since his rebel forces came to power at the end of the genocide in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred, overthrowing the genocidal regime.
Since then, Rwanda has remained relatively stable and Mr Kagame has sought to transform the country into the “Singapore of Africa”.
The capital is one of the cleanest cities in Africa and It is home to the African Basketball Leaguewhich is a partnership with the NBA. It hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2022 and international stars like Kendrick Lamar They held concerts there.
Mr Kagame often criticises the West, but has also sought to build alliances, for example with the UK, on The policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda has now been eliminatedin agreement with the previous Conservative government.
Although life in Rwanda has improved, Mr Kagame is accused of destabilising neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
Just days before the July elections, a United Nations report said that there were about 4,000 Rwandan soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, accused of supporting the M23 rebel group, fueling a bitter dispute between the two countries.
Under Mr Kagame, Rwandan troops have twice invaded the Democratic Republic of Congo, claiming they were hunting Hutu militias linked to the 1994 genocide.
Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi was not among the African leaders present at the inauguration.
In his speech, Mr Kagame appeared to criticize Mr Tshisekedi for failing to help defeat Rwandan rebels based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
If the situation does not change, he said, mediation efforts will not work.
He did not seem like the kind of man who would give in to any pressure and stop supporting the M23 rebels.
Further information provided by BBC World Service Africa Editor Will Ross
