By Spy Uganda
With just two years to go before Rwanda’s next presidential elections, freedom of expression remains a crime in the country and the Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling for the regime to transform from a culture of intolerance of dissent.
Lewis Mudge, HRW’s Central Africa director, said the judiciary in Rwanda lacked probity in protecting freedom of expression.
“Judicial authorities in Rwanda, lacking the independence to stand up and protect free speech in accordance with international law, have unjustly convicted and jailed people based on their protected speech and opinions,” he said as HRW launched its latest report titled Rwanda: Wave of Free Speech Prosecutions.
In 2017, President Paul Kagame was re-elected for another seven-year term with a staggering 98.8 percent of the vote. However, like in his previous victories, going as far back as the year 2000, critics cited irregularities and intimidation.
HRW said since Rwanda had very few opposition parties and human rights organisations and independent media remained weak, there’s a history of victimisation and disappearance of opposition figures.
“Victoire Ingabire, who was the president of the unregistered opposition party FDU-Inkingi before founding Dalfa-Umurinzi in November 2019, was released from prison in 2018. Members of her party have repeatedly been harassed, threatened, arrested or have died or disappeared in suspicious circumstances,” the organisation said in its report.
