September 08

Women to dominate unique Rwanda parliament and Zimbabwe begins journey to sobriety

BY GEORGE KAGAME This week's events and stories were determined by the parliamentary elections which would otherwise have passed like any other political activity but were made unique because most of the victors were women politicians who are at greater advantage again after out numbering their male legislative colleagues.

The Rwandan parliament will be the first since modern history in which women are the majority, but the victory of the women is not likely to change the political landscape of the country since most of them come the Rwanda Patriotic Front, the party which won most of the seats available.


This is the second time that Rwanda makes history in gender politics of legislative assemblies; the last parliament had 48 percent of its members, which was also the highest representation of women in any parliament in the world. Election monitors were quick to welcome the results as having been organized in a fair manner; the organizers said voter turnout was 90 percent while rebel group operating in Eastern DR Congo and Belgium were quick to dismiss the results.

James Musoni the minister of Finance also released another form of figures but his were sad, he said that the government spends annually FRW 37m on capacity building purposes, the money is channeled through universities and research institutions with the sole objective of producing national experts, and reduce depending on foreigners in all the crucial sectors of the economy.

It is not clear which skilled labour policy the government puts more emphasis, currently the ministry of labour is undertaking the national skills audit upon whose completion the government will introduce incentives to attract foreigners to come and work in Rwanda.


Talking capacity building, Rwanda is currently contributing to the funding of African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), which is a pan African institution aiming to solve skilled human labour shortage on the continent.

The lyrics of Bob Marley's 'Zimbabwe', were inspirational last week as Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangarai agreed to put their mutual dislike and distrust for each other to lay a framework of a new government since presidential election were held in that country at the beginning of the year, the results of those elections were completely confusing not only to the two men, but the country and the whole world.

Zimbabwe and the two men have been trying to settle that confusion since then. Last week,the political impasse in Zimbabwe was slowly taking a sober shape after Tsvangarai the esterwhile opposition leader in the country and its ailing president Mugabe agreed to share power ending a long standing violent dispute between their two political parties. In the Deal that was signed last week, Tsvangarai will be a prime minster and have his party colleagues part of the cabinet.

After the agreement, Tsvangarai told the press that he does not trust Mugabe but believes the old man is willing to forge a way forward for the crippling Zimbabwe back to economic stability after plunging to alarming inflation rates, South African president Thabo Mbeki who himself is fighting for his legacy under the threat of Jacob Zuma is credited for helping to settle the Zimbabwe crisis.

If 84 year old Mugabe is fighting for his political career and legacy, he will be happy to learn of the fate of 86 year old Mohammadu Bello Abubakar, whose unique marriage to 86 women has caused a puzzle to Islamic, legal and traditional practitioners in Nigeria.

The Nigerian, whose marriage troubles have been disturbing authorities in recent months was arrested by an Islamic court for refusing to divorce all but four of them. The muslim scholar was arrested during the holy month of Ramadathan and charged charged with "insulting religious creed" and "unlawful marriages".


What is interesting in this case is that while Niger traditional leaders have ordered Bello to divorce 82 of his wives, the legal courts have judged him innocent (citing his human rights), and the islamic court has instead arrested him, who is fooling whom?


Relationships is what President Paul Kagame was talking about last week when he stated that Rwanda is currently considering issuing arrest warrants against the French officials that were implicated in the Mucyo report for their part in the Rwandan Genocide.

Kagame said the warrants would be a counter measure for the warrants issued against Rwandans by the French judiciary in 2006, the talk of warrants caused a diplomatic furore between the two and were the hottest political issue at the time.


While politicians are busy paying their lip service about East African integration, mobile telephone companies in the region have chosen to ignore all political gibberish and make the regional block a reality, last week leading communications network introduced uniform tariffs for their subscribers, this will ensure that clients will be able to recharge their talking time while they travel across the region with out having to change their phone chips.