PSP PARTY IN REBUILDING MODE FOLLOWING LEADERSHIP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIGALI 000858

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/15/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM RW
SUBJECT: PSP PARTY IN REBUILDING MODE FOLLOWING LEADERSHIP
CHANGE

KIGALI 00000858 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Ambassador W. Stuart Symington for reasons 1.4 (b) (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: The leader of the small PSP party is a
political unknown who is new to her position and has
inherited a party that is still recovering from the departure
of its former leader, a senator and high-profile figure,
earlier in 2009. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) During a December 2 meeting with Polcouns, Solidarity
and Prosperity Party (PSP) leader Phoebe Kanyange said her
party's main goal is to convince Rwandans to take greater
ownership of their problems, find solutions, and leave a
legacy for their children. The most pressing needs of the
population are access to education and assistance to farmers
such as markets, roads and fertilizer. Kanyange, a
francophone, disagreed with the abrupt way in which the
Government of Rwanda (GOR) decided to implement the new
policy of replacing French with English in educational
institutions. She commented that francophone Rwandans were
working to learn English but many "Ugandans" had not bothered
to learn French at all. (Note: "The Ugandans" is a reference
to Rwandans who grew up as refugees in Uganda. End Note.)


3. (C) Kanyange explained that the PSP seeks to advance its
ideas through participation in the Political Parties Forum,
by circulating position papers and attempting to convince
others of their merits. Representatives of all parties
conduct debates, engage in consultations and provide input to
the GOR through the Forum. The drawback, according to
Kanyange, is that participants only see documents or
proposals after the GOR has already presented them; Forum
members cannot initiate government policy or legislation
themselves. Kanyange added that when Bernard Ntaganda,
leader of the newly-formed Social Party-Imberakuri
(PS-Imberakuri),made his first appearance at a Forum meeting
in November, he went around during the break telling people
he should be Rwanda's prime minister because he was the only
one who really represented the "opposition." (Note: The
Political Parties Forum is a constitutionally-mandated
institution, composed of representatives of all of Rwanda's
officially-registered parties. End Note.)


4. (C) According to Kanyange, the PSP was founded in late
2003, following the presidential and legislative elections of
that year and the dissolution of the former Republican
Democratic Movement (MDR) party. (Note: The MDR had a long
pedigree and was one of the more prominent parties during the
1990s but increasingly suffered from infighting and finally
imploded in 2002-03. When Rwanda adopted a new constitution
in 2003, no MDR members came forward to register the party.
End Note.) PSP's early leaders, such as former senator
Stanley Safari, came from the MDR. Kanyange was PSP's
second vice president at the time. (Note: The PSP joined
the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF)-led coalition for the
September 2008 legislative elections, and won one seat in
parliament. End Note.) Safari fled Rwanda earlier this year
in the midst of his trial on genocide charges by a gacaca
court. (Note: He appeared at the trial, sought and obtained
a transfer to another jurisdiction, and then obtained a
continuance to convoke wit
nesses for his defense before skipping the jurisdiction. End
Note.) That tarnished the party's name and provoked a
leadership crisis, as Stanley had been the PSP's president at
Qleadership crisis, as Stanley had been the PSP's president at
the time.


5. (C) The party held a congress in August 2009 to choose new
leadership. Kanyange campaigned hard, lobbying the
presidents of the PSP's five sub-offices in Rwanda, and the
congress elected her president of the party. (COMMENT:
According to local press, others within the party challenged
publicly the election process and results, alleging it was
unfair; Kanyange reportedly said she would assign the party's
one member of parliament to help reunite the party. END
COMMENT.) Explaining her victory, she said that by virtue of
her position within the party, she was intimately familiar
with Safari's activities as party leader and could best pick
up the fallen traces. Another plus, she added, was that she
was physically outside of Rwanda during the genocide, making
her immune to gacaca proceedings.


6. (C) BIO NOTE: Kanyange is approximately 40, married, with
three children aged six years to seven months. A Tutsi, her
family left Rwanda during the violence of 1959 and went to
Burundi, where she grew up. She was born in Burundi,
completed high school there, and studied at a technical
institute in Kampala, Uganda. She did not attend Makerere

KIGALI 00000858 002.2 OF 002


University, though two of her siblings did (one currently
lives in Boston, the other in Ottawa). Kanyange returned to
Rwanda in 1996, worked for a human rights NGO (NFI) for
several months, then joined UNICEF. She currently works as
the administrative officer at International Center for AIDS
Care and Treatment Programs/Kigali (ICAP),an international
NGO affiliated with Columbia University that receives funding
from the USG as well as from private foundations. Her
workplace strictly forbids any political activities during
working hours. END BIO NOTE.


7. (C) COMMENT: The PSP, a micro-party that allied itself
with the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front during the 2008
parliamentary elections, is still trying to find its way
after losing Safari, who was a high-profile figure. Kanyange
herself is a political unknown, and appears so far to have
little in the way of resources, backing or policy ideas.
What she has is ambition. Her prospects might improve if she
were in a work situation more conducive to demonstrating her
policy leadership, such as a position in government itself.
END COMMENT.
SYMINGTON