In August 2024, Rwandans will vote for their Members of Parliament and President, at the same time, for the very first time.

As expected, when Rwanda is set to hold elections, the Western media engine starts publishing recycled absurd stories questioning the ‘fairness and freedom’ of the elections about to be held while at the same time pushing for and promoting sham political opposition figures. The timing of recycled allegations aimed at tarnishing the image of the country’s leadership during the campaign period is not new.

Western media’s narrative often claims that elections in the country are ‘a one-man race’, and reports made up cases of ‘electoral intimidation’ in an attempt to influence the elections.

In 2010, when Rwandans held the nation's second presidential poll since the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, CNN published a story claiming that human rights groups expressed concern over ‘violence and repression’ leading up to the vote, and lack of critical opposition voices, because two aspiring candidates were under arrest and another had fled to Europe.

Among the ‘aspiring candidates’ that CNN referred to was one Victoire Ingabire, who came to Rwanda with hopes to register her party, FDU-Inkingi. The latter comprised a coalition of genocide ideologues and extremists mostly residing in Europe.

Ingabire was eventually arrested and convicted for terrorism, genocide denial and planning to cause state insecurity. She was, later, sentenced to 15 years in prison before she was eventually released on presidential clemency.

In 2017, when Rwandans were heading to polls, reports and articles from Western media poured again, describing Rwanda’s election as unfair and making up a story of how the government was stifling the opposition.

In July 2017, a month before the elections, Amnesty International, published a ‘report’ warning that the elections risked being held under “a climate of fear created by years of repression” due to alleged state intimidation of the opposition. It called upon Rwanda’s international partners with a presence in the country to ‘remain watchful’ before and during the election.

As expected, the ‘report’ was picked up by big media houses including CNN, BBC, DW, and France 24, and used to try to show how Rwanda’s elections are likely to be unfair.

On top of that, these media houses drew all their attention on Diane Rwigara, claiming she was ‘unfairly barred’ from running for president. A month prior to the elections, France 24, published an article featuring an interview with Rwigara where she claimed that local leaders threatened her supporters.

But France 24 failed to clarify that Rwigara had forged some of the signatures required for her nomination. Some of the signatures she presented belonged to deceased people. She also used documents belonging to another political party as was proved by the National Electoral Commission, which rejected her candidature.

Ahead of the 2024 polls, the same trend is being picked up again by Western media, with the same so-called opposition leaders.

On June 30, The New York Times published an article claiming that Paul Rusesabagina, a convicted terrorist, released on presidential pardon and allowed to go to the USA, was earlier arrested because of the ‘rivalry’ between him and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. It claimed that the former has ‘more of a platform than anyone else’ because of his prominence and the international attention to his case. The article implied that Rusesabagina is a potential opposition leader, who was wrongly imprisoned.

The conspiracies of ‘stifling opposition’ do not end there. In 2023 alone, Ingabire has been interviewed by several Western media houses including BBC, and Aljazeera, The Guardian, and Elpais, yet no one expects nothing from these articles other than her being portrayed as ’the main opposition leader against the government’ where she often claims that there is no freedom in Rwanda and plays victim card.

But Rwandans know better than falling for this circus of Western media. Why would they put a terrorist and a genocide denier at the helm of the country?

One thing Western media fails to understand is that no matter what foreigners, especially the detractors, say, Rwandans are the ones who have to choose the leader they want and for how long they want that leader to stay.

Rwandans now know the West’s manipulative policies to control African nations in the guise of human rights and development.

The corrupt West is, as a matter of fact, not in a position to define what human rights are and should look like for Rwandans and Rwanda.

Human rights in Rwanda belong to Rwandans and not for anyone else to claim or dictate.

Rwandans have been — and are still, fighting for human rights in many ways and facets of life from Western entities and know the true meaning of this fight better than anyone else ever could.

Rwandans now know that prosperity and stability cannot be achieved through Western prescriptions.

When the time comes, they will hold highly organized and peaceful elections as has always been the case.

Once the electoral process is fully wrapped up and the new leaders announced, the nation will celebrate and carry on with work. The detractors, as usual, will not sleep.