One truth is that Paul 'the Octopus' kagame has never changed. From the eyes of an 'outsider', yes he has, but for those that ask questions in this village, no he hasn't. President kagame has always been the same, dictator. Military general. He had his fair contribution to the genocide that happened and even worked to stop it and restore order in midst of the chaos he helped create.
You see, it is a matter of perception. Kagame has used the same tactics from the time he was fighting the Hutu to stop the genocide upto the time he took over as president.
It was alright when he was doing these same things to "the bad guys", the perpetrators of genocide, all of us had no qualms about his actions. Why would we? He was dealing with the bad guys.!!
The same rod he was wielding against the bad guys and 'was good'; he has turned on his critics and he is now bad. That is why I say, it is a matter of perception...the swahili saying that "mkuki mtamu kwa nguruwe, kwa binadamu ni chungu".
Just like brother Sungu rightly points out, when the constitution gives a military general in civilian clothing, power to do anything he wants, it is pointless to say that the guy has changed. He only took time to show his claws.
Kagame is a student of Yoweri Kaguta museveni. Kagame was trained and served under Kaguta museveni in the NRA, who later unleashed him on the hutu controlled government. Kaguta Museveni was good too.. until "he became bad".
Later, after Kagame became president, Museveni tried to take-him-on in Kisangani(DRC), (the war for minerals) and all of you are aware of the embarassment he caused to the Ugandan strongman.
These are all "African strong men". When a country is in chaos, it gets a man with dictatorial tendencies who brings some semblance of sanity, thus we declare him a "good man"... But when the sanity has been restored, the dictator has no idea how to say "halt!" to his craving for power and control. He turns his "rungu" on us (the press, civil society, critics of former regime who now criticize him and any open minded man foolish-enough to question his actions) his former allies that is. So we declare him a bad dictator.
In reality, it is not the man who has changed, nay, it is our perception of the man. I give you a list..? Paul Kagame, Mobutu Seseko (installed and probed by America and their CIA), Museveni, Moi...
That is why we have to vote yes.. even if it is just to bring a low level of structures to stop a future "Kenyatta or Moi" from telling us "Siasa mbaya, maisha mbaya". Because it is only him to decide on what is "mbaya or mzuri".
The "Mills and Boon" readers alias, love specialists, say that "Love is blind", the villager thinks that this applies to politics too. When we have so many problems, the dictators come and our love and desire for change or order blinds us. We embrace the crook with open arms and loving hearts. But ofcourse..!!
They say familiarity breeds contempt. So years down the road of our "marriage" we start seeing other aspects of his character that had been covered by our blinding love for him. We notice that he is insulting and arrogant, yet that is the same reason we loved him; because he used to insult the opponent and his arrogance to the opponent was a sign of strength to us, thus he was "our man" he was "the man".
Carl
On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 7:04 PM, otieno sungu <sunoti@yahoo.com> wrote:
Boiywo,This is lack of institutional checks and balances. You see, they all come in good and for a while remain good but soon, the immense powers that some of our african constitutions are make demi gods out of very good men.They realize they hold the nations in their palms, with powers to hire and fire crucial office holders like Attorney Generals, Chief Justices, Police Chiefs etc without reffering to anyone.These people then start doing their bidding and thus the collapse of institutions. This is what happened with President Yoweri Museveni, Robert Mugabe and our own Daniel Moi and it is now happening to Paul Kagame.To stop this kind of good leaders turning into demagogues and dictators, african countries must embark on a journey to strengthen institutions through the constitutions like we are doing now. In future, the President will have to get Parliaments approval to appoint these office bearers.For these people, it will no longer be allegience to one man but to institutions that they are responsible for and ultimately, the people through their representatives.Until Africa matures its democracy such that appointees serve not one man's wishes but the wishes of the people, we will still see many of Kagames and Musevenis in Africa.You must have heard that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!!!!Regards,Otieno Sungu.
From: Buiywo Siongiki <kubesto@gmail.com>
To: mlalahoi@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thu, July 22, 2010 1:45:12 PM
Subject: RWANDA OPPOSITION MASSACRES
Guys,Have you ever wondered why a once peaceful country with a growing economy like Rwanda is currently cracking down on Opposition leaders and journalists who are a critique? Is it that Paul Kagame has turned power hungry or is it the tradition of African leaders.What is it brothers and sisters?thanks.--
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