Are Rwandans going to amend the constitution after 2034?

On Thursday, December,17,2015, Rwandans in Rwanda and around the world participated the referendum which aimed to amend article 101 of  2003 Rwandan Constitution which prevented President Paul Kagame to run for a Third term in office after 2017.

After the election, NEC (National Electoral Commission) published YES to get a win with 98,3%  votes and NO =1,7 votes .  Now H.E Paul Kagame is allowed to rule the country till 2034.

Because the renewed constitution says that if Kagame wants, he can compete another term of 7 years and other two terms of 5 years each in presidential seat.

Most of Rwandans who claimed the modification of the constitution had been saying  that there is no point in letting Kagame goes because of his potential in leading them to development, security, unity and reconciliation  since he took the power in 2000.

On the agenda of the ruling party RPF-Inkotanyi includes unity, sovereignty and security, democracy and development,… undoubtedly RPF will continue in this beat headed by Kagame.

Constitution amendment claimers said that the country's achievements are results of Kagame’s good governance and there is one top official said that if Rwandans  lose Kagame, they can die of ‘AMABURAKAGAME(illness that can arise after Kagame leaves the power).’’

Here, everyone can ask himself if Rwandans are going to amend the constitution for a third time since 2003 if they love Kagame after 2034 as they love him today.

In 2034 Kagame will be 77, in Africa we have already realised that at this age presidents of African countries are still able to govern , loved by their people as Robert Mugabe of 92 is in Zimbabwe, Paul Biya of 83 in Cameron, Abdelaziz  Bouteflika of 79 in Algeria and many others. 

 All these presidents stated above are older than Kagame even they pass away this moment, they are still older than him in 2034 because he will be 77 as he is around 59 today.

We did the referendum of 2015 because we love Kagame and that we wish to be with him next 17 years or  beyond, are we going to hate him by 2034? Is he going to have a bad governance we have never seen before so that in 2034 we will say OK we want you to step down because we are tired of you or we are going to make the national constitution like my Musana notebook where I write everything, anyhow and anytime, anywhere I wish.

Remember that the more we do elections, the more we spend billions of money while Rwandans are suffering of long time draught, poverty, malaria,…  

It’s possible that the come up constitution proposal of our parliamentarians was contrary to our wishes, because while we were carrying baskets from different corners of the country to parliament headquarter in  Kigali, we claimed our Kagame to rule till he says I am tired.

In my opinion, we should prefer to remove term limits in our national constitution as to become as other countries chose to delete term limits in their constitution to avoid our respected and expensive constitution to be amended by everyone for his personal profit.

Since Rwanda gains the independence in 1962, the Rwandan national constitution was modified five times in 1962, 1978, 1991, and 2003 recently in 2015 after 12 years since 2003.