If you ask any genocide survivor about their family’s political affiliation before the genocide in Rwanda, one name rings out – Parti Liberal (PL). For many of us, PL was once a vibrant party that courageously championed democratic rights in the face of oppression. It was a beacon of hope.

But the news this week that PL failed yet again to field a presidential candidate to compete with the long-ruling Paul Kagame in the 2024 elections is saddening, though unsurprising. It begs the question: How did this brave, nostalgic party that our parents belonged to fall so far from its former stature as a champion of democracy?

Let me take you back to my childhood in the 1990s when my father, like most Tutsis inside the country back then, was a devoted PL member. I recall adults proudly wearing the party’s iconic green baseball caps and polo shirts, while our family shop flew its green flag adorned with three yellow stars. My father would enthusiastically distribute PL membership cards to young people hungry for freedom, although little did they know then how elusive that freedom would remain, even three decades later.

Once a proud defender of political rights, PL today barely survives. It managed to endure Habyarimana’s oppressive regime only to be suffocated by Kagame’s dictatorship. Habyarimana strategically divided PL and other opposition parties, creating a Hutu-power faction and independent members loyal to democratic ideals. However, the current regime went further – physically eliminating or forcing into exile PL members who refused to toe the RPF line.

Just five years after the genocide, prominent figures like Assiel Kabera were killed, while others like former speaker Joseph Sebarenzi narrowly escaped assassination and fled to the USA via Uganda following a list of fabricated charges as trivial as rebelling survivors against the government, disseminating music cassettes by a critic singer known as Sankara, or supporting the exiled King Kigeli V and his alleged, but fictitious, army.

In reality, Kagame, who was then the Vice President with ambitions for the presidency in 2003, feared Sebarenzi’s rising influence, which could challenge his grip on power. When PL planned to elect the popular Sebarenzi as president in 1999, the vote was abruptly postponed many times on Kagame’s orders. If Sebarenzi had won, his strengthened standing could have boosted his chances in the 2003 presidential election. However, from that pivotal moment, the real PL became a relic confined to history books, as a hollow puppet version took its place.

As a friend accurately remarked while I was writing this piece, PL now exists in name only – a mere shadow of its former self.

Critics argue that Rwanda under Kagame is essentially a one-party state, if not a one-man regime, much like the pre-genocide era. The only difference? Kagame maintains an array of cosmetic opposition parties like PL that exist solely as empty facades. All parties must agree to be part of the “RPF-controlled platform,” the so-called National Consultative Forum of Political Organizations (NFPO) – a thinly veiled farce.

Founded in 1991 after intense pressure forced the Habyarimana regime to reluctantly end the MRND’s monopoly, PL’s ideals of freedom and justice resonated with countless Rwandans who had endured two decades of dictatorship. PL swiftly rose to prominence, securing cabinet seats and attracting marginalized Tutsis and moderate Hutus to its democratic vision.

In its early years, PL teamed up with other progressive forces like PSD, MDR, PDC, and PSR to form the FDC coalition, directly confronting Habyarimana’s regime while collaborating with the RPF’s armed rebellion based in Uganda. But this very alliance with the RPF proved fatally dangerous, as Habyarimana’s regime retaliated by corrupting opposition parties, splitting them along ethnic fault lines.

Within PL itself, Hutu founders like Justin Mugenzi formed the pro-MRND “PL power” faction, while the remaining members (Lando faction) allied with parties like PSD, promoting the Arusha Accords and openly supporting the RPF – a decision that would seal their doom under Habyarimana’s brutal crackdown before the genocide.

Branded a party of “Tutsi traitors,” PL’s Lando faction witnessed its prominent leaders and their entire families massacred during the genocide’s horrors – including Lando himself, Kayiranga Charles, Kameya Andre, Rebero Laurent, Ngagi Justin, Kabageni Venantie, Dr. Kurawige, and Jean Baptiste Habyarimana (Former Prefect of Butare), among countless others cut down. Similar Hutu power factions emerged to splinter other opposition parties from within.

After 1994, surviving members like Joseph Nsengimana, Prosper Higiro, Esdras Kayiranga, Laurent Nkongori, and Tharcise Mutake resurrected PL, hoping that the new RPF government would finally open the long-awaited political space that Habyarimana’s MRND had denied. They were wrong!

Mirroring the oppressive tactics of its predecessor, the RPF systematically corrupted PL from within, using proxy figures like Pio Mugabo, Odette Nyiramirimo, Higiro, and Protais Mitali to destroy the party’s independence and conspire against those seeking true democracy.

By the year 2000, all remaining dissenting voices had been killed, jailed, or exiled. PL made its last attempt to be independent from the ruling RPF manipulation in 2007. During this time, three senior PL officials—Elie Ngirabakunzi and Isaie Murashi, both members of parliament, along with Dr. Laurien Nyabyenda—contested in court the RPF’s intrusion in the election of Mitali as the president of the PL. Their courageous opposition resulted in all three being expelled from the party.

Today, 33 years since its creation, PL has not recovered from this blow. Unsurprisingly, it lacks the courage to challenge the status quo or seek genuine political freedoms. It exists in a symbiotic relationship with the RPF – a party that primarily serves the ruling party’s interests, often at the expense of Rwandans and survivors who once saw PL as a counterweight to unchecked power.

The PL we see today is a mere shadow of its former self. If my parents and others who embraced its initial ideals were alive to witness its downfall, they would be deeply disappointed by how their hopes for a vibrant multi-party democracy have withered. Ends

By Albert Gasake March 29/2024.