There is no political crisis in Rwanda, it's the rules

Do you agree there is a crisis in Rwanda?

My answer is no. Reading international and regional news, you clearly see the story has no substance. We are in election time and this is Rwanda and therefore people believe something wrong has to happen.

Why would people think that elections in Rwanda have to be accompanied with violence? The reportage is using different sources quoting each other without really scratching the surface.

Time magazine recently published an article, ‘Is Rwanda’s Hero Becoming Its Oppressor?’ What is your take on that article?

It was a very biased story, particularly picking on the arrest of self-imposed political aspirant Victoire Ingabire and the suspension of Umuseso and Umuvugizi (two local newspapers) by the Media High Council. It is those two facts that Time took as its basis.

Maybe the article is not actually biased but it is inaccurate. Umuseso’s troublesome nature is not new at all in Rwanda. From 2004, the newspaper has been involved in controversy. The editor has been to court. He has boycotted and been suspended from attending government activities. He has been warned very many times.

What about Madame Ingabire?

Ingabire is not working diligently to become a presidential candidate. She is back to Rwanda after 16 years to create social unrest. Her being taken to court didn’t surprise anyone here.

She has a criminal history as documented by the prosecution. She has clear ties with genocidal forces that have wreaked havoc in this part of Africa and this is tied into her own ideology. The fact that she is in bed with this terrorist organisation is only a result of her genocide ideology.

There is no place for people like Ingabire in Rwanda. Not now and not in many years. If Rwandans let one person come and erase their success in the name of pluralistic democracy, it would be foolishness. We don’t want divisionism, incitement, disunity and genocide denial.

How do you measure “genocide ideology”? Don’t you think there are flaws in the genocide law?

People say the law against Rwandans engaging in “genocide ideology” was put in place by President Paul Kagame’s regime to keep them from talking.

Rwandans have talked about genocide and what has happened in this country for the past 20 years non-stop. How does one create a law that fights racism, genocide and bigotry that is precise?

There is no precision in “ideology” whether you are in France, the United States, Poland, Holland or South Africa.

I have looked at 15 other countries with these laws and they are as vague as they can be. I have seen similar laws about the Holocaust and I have seen people from these countries saying we have vague laws.