CITIZENSHIP GROUPWORK

Group members; DATE:05/12/2022

● UMUTONI KAZE Joanna Michelle
● HIRWA RUKUNDO Hope
● MUGISHA SHAMI Innocent
● MUGISHA Guy Noel
● BATETE Ange Nadette
● NSENGIYUMVA Nicolas
● ITURUSHIMBABAZI Peace Exaucee
● SANGWA HIRWA Sean
● GITOLI Remy Claudien

Group number: 3
Class: Year 1B

SECTION A
1. False
2. False
3. False
4. False
5. True

SECTION B
1. Discuss the political parties that were formed before Rwanda got
independence.

First of all, A political party is an organization that coordinates

candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the
members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote
specific ideological or policy goals. Before independence, Rwanda used the
multiparty system but after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda became a one-party-
dominant state with the Rwandan Patriotic Front in power. So the following are
political parties formed before Rwanda got independence;

➢ Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR): This was a conservative Rwandan

political party. It was founded on 3 September 1959, by François Rukeba,
and strongly supported by King Kigeri V. At the time, Rwanda was still
under Belgian administration, and UNAR was the leading monarchist
party. It called for immediate independence under a hereditary Tutsi
constitutional monarchy.

➢ Rassemblement Démocratique du Rwanda (RADER): This was formed

on April 3, 1995, by a group of Rwandan refugees in Mugunga, the
eastern region of the then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Its stated goal was to establish a democratic and free Rwandan
Republic, and its president was Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.

➢ Parti du Mouvement pour l’Emancipation Hutu (PARMEHUTU): This

was a political party in Rwanda and was formed by Grégoire Kayibanda in
June 1957. The movement emphasized the right of the majority ethnicity
to rule and asserted the supremacy of Hutus over Tutsis. It was the most
important party of the "Hutu Revolution'' of 1959–61 that led to Rwanda
becoming an independent republic and Hutus superseding Tutsis as the
ruling group.

➢ Association pour la Promotion Sociale de la Masse (APROSOMA):

The party was established on 15 February 1959 by Joseph Gitera
alongside friends and former schoolmates. Although it initially promoted
social improvement for both Hutu and Tutsi, it later became an anti-Tutsi
party.

Those were the main political parties but there included others such as :

➢ AREDETWA: This stands for Association pour le Relèvement

Démocratique de Batwa or Association for Democratic Elevation of Batwa.
It was founded by Laurent Munyankuge from Gitarama. This party was
later absorbed by PARMEHUTU.

➢ APADEC: This stands for Association du Parti Démocratique Chrétien or

Association of Christian Democratic Party. Its founder was called Augustin
Rugiramasasu.
 ➢ UMUR: This stands for Union des Masses Rwandaises.

➢ UNINTERCOKI: This stands for Union des Intêréts Communs du

Kinyaga.

➢ ABAKI: This stands for Alliance des Bakiga.

➢ MEMOR: This stands for Mouvement Monarchiste Rwandais.

➢ MUR: This stands for Mouvement pour l’Union Rwandaise.

In conclusion therefore, we have been discussing different political parties that

were formed before the independence of Rwanda. The major ones included
PARMEHUTU which helped Rwanda get its independence, UNAR, RADER and
APROSOMA. There were others such as APADEC, AREDETWA, etc. All these played
an important role but they were all abolished after the liberation war and Rwanda
became a one-party-dominant state with the Rwandan Patriotic Front in power as stated
before.

2. Evaluate the socio-economic achievements of the First Republic.

The first republic of Rwanda started in 1972 after the coup d’etat of president
KAYIBANDA by HABYARIMANA. From then the first republic was over. In the following
passage we are going to see more about different social-economic achievements of the
first republic.

Economic Achievements.

➢ The first republic did more in the development of infrastructures like the
development of schools, hospitals and also some governmental head offices.
Even though all the above infrastructures were not evenly distributed within the
county.

➢ In addition to that during the first republic there was development of health
centers whereby different foreign medicines were introduced in order to replace
the traditional medicines. And also there development of different hospitals for
example the hospital of Kabgayi.
 ➢ There was also a big development in the food sector because as the Europeans
came they introduced new types of agricultural products like the tea and the
coffes and all these led to the improvement in the agricultural sector.

➢ Financial institutions like banks were opened and supported a few factories and
industrial companies.

➢ Roads linking Rwanda to her neighbors were to be tarmacked as it was set in

the framework of the five Year Development plan (1966 – 1971). Examples of the
roads are : Kigali – Gatuna.

➢ Besides there was the construction of Kanombe airport which opened Rwanda to
the outside world.

➢ There was also the construction of Rusumo Bridge at Akagera River which
connected Rwanda to Tanzania and they also constructed Nyabarongo Bridge
on River Nyabarongo.

➢ ISAR(Institut des Science Agronomiques du Rwanda) which was in charge of

preparing plant seeds ,improved seeds and plants and distributed them in some
parts of the country and in that time some Marshlands were reclaimed to improve
agricultural products.

Social achievements.

In education:

➢ The 1st republic increased their budget allocated to education where before
secondary schools were 23 schools and increased to 63 schools , the enrolment
in primary schools was 261,306 increased to 425,000 and the number of girls in
school increased from 29% to 45%.
 ➢ During the first Republic the first University was started with a priest called
Levesque and it distributed faculties in medicines, arts and science.

In health:

➢ Some socio-medical centers were opened for providing health education and
training on how to avoid and prevent diseases and knowledge in maternal health
care.

➢ and preventive medicine vaccination campaigns were initiated between 1965

and 1970.

In conclusion the above are different social-economic achievements of the first

republic of Rwanda. In addition there are many achievements not only the one
mentioned above but also there are others but not more consindered as the above
ones. There are also both positive and negative achievements but in this context we
choose to discuss only the positive ones in order to meet the requirements of the
questions.

3. Explain why Grégoire Kayibanda failed to unify the Rwandan citizens.

Grégoire Kayibanda (1 May 1924 – 15 December 1976) was a Rwandan

politician and revolutionary who was the first elected President of Rwanda from 1962 to
1973. An ethnic Hutu, he was a pioneer of the Rwandan Revolution and led Rwanda's
struggle for independence from Belgium, replacing the Tutsi monarchy with a republican
form of government. Rwanda became independent from Belgium in 1962, with
Kayibanda serving as the country's first president, establishing a pro-Hutu policy and a
de facto one-party system governed by his party . He was overthrown in a coup d'état in
1973 by his defense minister, Juvénal Habyarimana, and died three years later.
Grégoire Kayibanda led Rwanda's first Republic which was characterized by ethnic
ideology and bad governance. This later contributed to the 1994 genocide against the
Tutsi due to failure to unify Rwandan citizens.
★ Unsettled ethnic and political tensions : Grégoire Kayibanda failed to settle
the long-term conflicts that were between both the Tutsi and Hutu population.
This later led to genocide against the Tutsis.

★ Inefficiency and corruption developed in government : The government of

Grégoire Kayibanda involved corruption of different natural resources of the
country, also this government was inefficient to solve different problems that
were faced by the Rwandan citizens.

★ The Kayibanda administration established quotas to try to increase the

number of Hutu in schools and the civil service: Only Hutu children were
allowed to study in schools, this effort ended up penalizing the Tutsi citizens. This
later resulted into different ethnic conflicts wich later led to the 1994 genocide
against the Tutsis.

★ Ethnic identity cards: The Kayibanda's government started to introduce identity

cards that were used to divide Rwandan citizens into different ethnic groups such
as Tutsi, Hutu and Twa ; this system increased ethnic tension which later led to
genocide in 1994.

★ It banned the political parties UNAR and RADER and executed Tutsi
members: The Kayibanda’s government banned different Tutsi opposition
parties which included RADER and UNAR from elections. This also contributed
to rising of ethnic tension between Hutu and Tutsi.

★ The culture of impunity. Gregoire failed to unite people as he founded the

Hutu Emancipation Movement Party in 1957 to fight against the Tutsi aristocracy
which created differences among Rwandans.
 ★ The role played by the press. During the first republic due to the coming on
power by the Hutu community many media started promoting hatred among the
Hutu and Tutsi which created differences among Rwandans.

★ Increased violence. By 1962, about 120,000 people, primarily Tutsis, had

taken refuge in neighboring states to flee the violence which had
accompanied the gradual coming into power of the Hutu community.

★ Increased attacks. The Hutus and Tutsis were living peacefully until
some of the Tutsis who wanted a return of the previous and exiled
monarchical regime organized themselves in neighboring countries and
began several unsuccessful attacks against the Rwandan government.
This increased hatred between the Hutu majority, who were in favor of the
Republic and the Tutsi minority So the situation got worse after some
bloodbaths were recorded in neighboring Burundi in 1972.

As a conclusion, we can say that some of the failures of Grégoire Kayibanda to

unify the Rwandan citizens are: Unsettled ethnic and political tensions, Inefficiency and
corruption developed in government, The Kayibanda administration established quotas
to try to increase the number of Hutu in schools and the civil service, Ethnic identity
cards, it banned the political parties UNAR and RADER and executed Tutsi members.
Those are the main failures encountered in the first republic which was led by Grégoire
Kayibanda. After genocide; there was a new government led by his excellence PAUL
Kagame which led to the unification of Rwandan citizens and the good development of
the country.