Rwanda: Paul Kagame running for a fourth term in office

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has announced for the first time that he plans to run for a fourth term in next year’s elections.

“I am happy with the trust Rwandans have placed in me. I will always serve them, whenever I can. Yes, I am indeed a candidate,” 65-year-old Kagame told the French-language magazine Jeune Afrique Wednesday, September 20.

In March, the Rwandan government decided to synchronize the dates of its legislative and presidential elections, scheduled for August 2024.

Until then, Kagame had not openly expressed his intentions, but he has made controversial constitutional amendments that have enabled him to serve a third term and could allow him to govern until 2034.

A former rebel leader, Kagame has been considered the country’s de facto leader since the end of the 1994 genocide. He was returned to power – with over 90% of the vote – in the 2003, 2010 and 2017 elections. While Rwanda now claims to be one of the most stable countries on the African continent, human rights groups accuse Kagame of ruling in a climate of fear, stifling dissent and freedom of expression.

In 2021, Paul Rusesabagina, hero of “Hotel Rwanda” and outspoken critic of Kagame, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for alleged terrorism, following his arrest the previous year. Rusesabagina was on a plane he thought was bound for Burundi when it landed in Kigali, in what his family described as a kidnapping.

Released from prison in March 2023 and flown to the USA following a presidential pardon, Rusesabagina published a video message in July 2023, claiming that Rwandans were “prisoners in their own country”.