Rwanda Series

Zambia mourns Mwanawasa while Rwandan parties hype up gender politics as elections nigh

BY GEORGE KAGAME

It was reported in July during the AU heads of state summit in Cairo that Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa had died after suffering a stroke during the 11th Africa Union Summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt the Zambian government denied the charges and insisted that their leader was recovering in a Paris hospital unfortunately early this week it was reported that Mwanawasa had passed away in France.

Mwanawasa, 59, was a favourite with donors for tackling corruption and as the strongest critic of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe for the political crisis in that country. He was among a few world leaders that came forward to criticize Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe for his mishandling of the presidential elections between him-Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangarai describing the debacle in Zimbabwe as scandalous.

While Zambia mourns their fallen leader, Zimbabweans are still stuck in political confusion which has persisted presidential elections held in that country in March 2008. Reports in the week emerged that Robert Mugabe's people had decided to convene parliament in the middle of negotiations to end a long running stalemate, this was seen as a hindrance to the ongoing talks between Mugabe and Tsvangarai. Political talk at home is currently boiling around preparations for the forth coming parliamentary elections due next month, however instead of discussing their agenda in parliament, most political parties have jumped on the band wagon of gender politics, all the political parties are positioning themselves as promoting more women representatives and their percentages in the total number of legislators.

The electoral commission set the mood by announcing midweek that the number of women on all the party lists comes to 30 per cent, it is not clear why newsmakers have chosen to highlight the percentages f women as a new phenomena as the constitution emphasizes the 30 per cent mark as the minimum number of women required at all levels of decision making in Rwandan public offices and institutions. The RPF along with its 6 coalition partners have for long positioned themselves as leading the pack in nominating women for political office and predictably they have more numbers this time too. While the debate of women percentages rages one prior to the campaigns, the issues which the legislators are supposed to discuss have taken a back seat as women percentage talk takes centre stage. Rwanda's other touristic attraction, the Akagera National Park was last week in danger after a fire broke out and gutted close to 107 square kilometres of the oldest game reserve in the country.The fire is believed t have been caused by poachers and lasted for 38 hours. With the constant threat of fire outbreaks in Akagera, ORTPN will need the same effort to protect this largely Savannah grassland as they do with the sacred gorillas.
As part of Rwanda’s determination to reform business practices, customs authorities have increased working hours at the busy boarder post of Gatuna between Uganda and Rwanda. Revenue organizations from both countries agreed that from 1 September, business activities will resume at 6am in the morning and end at 10.00pm in the night.

The move follows a recent directive by Kenyan President Mr Mwai Kibaki that cargo delivery from Mombasa port and operations at all entry points be done 24 hrs.
Kibaki also directed that bottlenecks to cargo transportation like road blocks be reduced from 47 to 17 while four axle trucks have been banned from operating in Kenya due to the tear and wear implications on the roads caused by overloaded trucks.

Also in the news:

President Paul Kagame in his first visit as Chairman of the East African Community is on a working visit to neighbouring Burundi, who like Rwanda is the youngest members of the block.

The National University of Rwanda will next year start two post graduate courses in the study of peace and prevention of genocide.