AfroAmerica Network in collaboration with Clarisse Mwambali in Kigali, Rwanda
San Jose, California
12.12.00
Former members of the Rwandan Patriotic Front party and Government met in Montreal, Canada in November 2000, to begin the creation of a political party opposed to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). RPF overthrew the former government and has been ruling Rwanda unchallenged since 1994.
These members, mostly from ethnic Tutsis minority that dominate the RPF, resigned from the Rwandan Patriotic Front in September 2000, or recently fled Rwanda. The core group of the new party includes Alexander Kimenyi, Sebarenzi Kabuye, Joseph Nsengimana, Eugene Karangwa, and Augustine Kamongi.
In September 12, 2000 AfroAmerica Network had indicated that the resignation of Alexander Kimenyi from the RPF had fueled speculations. According to some comments and political analyses, Kimenyi was believed to be teaming up with Sebarenzi Kabuye, the exiled former Speaker of the Parliament to form an opposition party. Others had put him in the Monarchists, trying to reestablish the former Tutsi kingdom in Rwanda. Still others thought that he was in contact with an armed political party, the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR).
Sources close to Alexander Kimenyi's family had confided to AfroAmerica Network that Kimenyi was weighing options before his next move. Now, it seems that he has taken the opportunity of his sabbatical leave to create a party.
However, it appears that the new political party has been unsuccessful in recruiting Rwandans from other ethnic groups, especially the Hutu. In fact, Hutus accuse the group, especially Alexander Kimenyi of being Tutsi extremist. According to a linguist expert, Dr. Eugene Shimamungu, Kimenyi's previous publications and poems include racist references to Hutu ethnic group, promote the concept of superiority of Tutsi over other indigenous ethnic groups, and advocate a purely Tutsi government in Rwanda. SOS Rwanda-Burundi, a Human Rights group based in Europe has also accused Kimenyi of advocating theories of genocide. Other Rwandans also point to recent statements made by Kimenyi, where he explains that his main motive to quit the RPF was that "RPF even massacres Tutsis."
Professor Alexander Kimenyi has consistently denied these accusations.
@AfroAmerica Network, December 12, 2000.
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