Stabability+of+Politics

Annie S. and Chelsea Y.

Rwanda
 * "Rwanda has achieved political, economic and social stability" - KAGAME**

After years of an unstable government, President of the Republic of Rwanda, H.E. Paul Kagame has announced that Rwanda has reached stability in political, economic, and social areas.

Political- Kagame stated that Rwanda had, "made great strides in the area of reconciliation." Going along with this, the government has given more power to the public by allowing them to elect their leaders at the Cell, Secteur, and District levels. More power has also been given to local councils so that the government isn't making all the decisions for everyone (Rwanda).

Economy- All the major parts of the economy have been brought back to life dating back to the year 1990. Better harvests have been recorded and because of this there is a good amount of food to feed the people. The Government of National Unity has reached an inflation growth rate at about 6% per annum, a big increase compared to it's 3% within the last three years. Kagame has not let the issue of corruption and past history of corruption get in the way he does thing (Rwanda).

"We have been very intolerant of corruption, right from the beginning. Corruption can destroy the economy, the politics and indeed the whole image of the country. It also discourages investors and trade," he said, adding, "We must use whatever legal means are in place to deal with it. Fighting corruption in a situation where corruption was the order of the day is not going to be easy by any means. But it is a choice we have made."(Rwanda).

Kagame does agree with multi- party politics. "Given our history, we have to debate how they (parties) can operate without taking the country through the kind of situation we had in the past. Nobody should be allowed to do whatever they like to earn support or votes to the extent of destroying a country or causing Genocide as was the case in 1994."(Rwanda).

The Rwanda genocide was caused by the unequality of power between the Tutsi's and the Hutu's. The Tutsi's had had supreme power for most of history and saw no need to change that. The Hutu's began raiding Tutsi villages, trying to show that they wanted a share of the power too. Thier plan backfired and the only thing they caused was over half a million deaths. To this day, the Tutsi's are not willing to share thier power, and the Hutu's are not being very mature by killing people to try and get what they want. At this rate, nothing is ever going to change and the Tutsi-Hutu rivalry will continue for a very long time (Shah).

Kenya is another country that's had a high stability rate. This is said to be because of the Kenyan President, Jomo Kenyetta, who like Kagame is a very respected man and hero in the eyes of many Kenyans. "The President has been the cornerstone of Kenya's stability since independence," a Kenya journalist wrote (Tamarkin).

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Sources: "Rwanda has achieved political, economic and social stability - KAGAME". 2/20/08 <[|http://www.gov.rw/government/070102.html>.] Tamarkin, M.. "The Roots of Political Stability in Kenya". JSTOR. 2/20/08 <[|http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0001-9909%28197807%2977%3A308%3C297%3ATROPSI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage.>.]

Shah, Anup. "Conflicts in Africa-Rwanda". Global Issues. 20 February 2008 <[|http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Africa.asp>.]