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Rwanda’s opposition in diaspora disintegrating

Saturday July 23 2016
EAKagameQA

Rwandan President Paul Kagame. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA

A split in an exiled political group has further weakened Rwanda’s opposition, leaving the ruling party with virtually no challenge ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

The Rwanda National Congress (RNC), an exile-based political group formed by former close allies of President Paul Kagame including Lt Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, Dr Theogene Rudasingwa, Dr Gerald Gahima and the late Patrick Karegeya, announced the split earlier this month.

The split was a result of the falling out between the party’s co-ordinator Dr Rudasingwa, a former secretary general of the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front Inkotanyi and Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, whom the former accuses of running the party with an iron fist.

Dr Rudasingwa has now formed a breakaway faction named  the New RNC, which he said will regroup and form coalitions to exert pressure on Kigali ahead of the 2017 presidential poll.

On Monday last week, the New RNC announced a coalition with another foreign-based opposition group, Mouvement Nationale-Inkubiri, and launched a new-web based Radio Ihuriro, separate from the RNC broadcaster, Radio Itahuka.

“There is a lot of urgent and difficult work to do immediately that should be our priority. All Rwandans, Africa and the international community have to be mobilised to stop President Paul Kagame from becoming life president in 2017,” Mr Rudasingwa said.

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However, with no presence on the ground, observers say, there is little exiled opposition leaders can do to interfere with the 2017 elections.

Kigali already describes the RNC as a criminal organisation whose founding members have been handed lengthy sentences in Rwanda in absentia. Sources indicate that the news of the break-up were welcomed within RPF ranks.

Efforts to get a comment from the RPF secretary general Francois Ngarambe proved futile as his phone went unanswered but insiders indicate that the break up was good news for the RPF.

Some RPF officials and Members of Parliament like Dr Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi openly expressed their delight at the split in RNC, stating, “It is the beginning of the end” of the political organisation.

The bickering and accusations publicly levelled against each other in the wake of the split have further proved how divided the Rwandan opposition is, with observers saying that power struggle in RNC ranks has strengthened the RPF.

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