The trapping of power has never been so visible and sweet as I witnessed and experienced during an official five-day trip to Kigali, Rwanda.
I was part of a seven-person team from Kenya National Assembly on an interestingly unique fact-finding mission dubbed RRI (Rapid Results Initiative) project. The other members were: Owino Harrison (Team Leader), Esther Kamau, Kipkemoi arap Kirui, Nicholas Matiko, Polycarp Oluoch, Hortensia Nyawira and yours truly.
RRI was introduced by Government of Kenya under President, Mwai Kibaki (2002-2012), to improve service delivery and focus on positive results rather than process in the public sector.
Rapid Results Initiative (RRI)
On the eve of the trip, in 2006, I was requested by the Team Leader to present my passport, national identity and letter from my employer giving me time off and the nod to travel out of the country. Within the next 48 hours, my passport was back in my office drawer with a stamped visa by the Rwandese Embassy giving me clearance to visit that tiny landlocked Great Lakes country which was a former Belgian colony.
It was hassle-free and very simple! As I looked forward to the trip, we held several meetings planning and having refreshments in one of the side rooms in the restaurant, reserved exclusively for waheshimiwa (Members of Parliament) and senior parliamentary staff led by long-serving Speaker, Francis ole Kaparo, and The Clerk, P.C. Owino Omolo. Minutes were recorded during the relaxed one hour meetings and a date set for the next meeting.
On the other side, the protocol officers prepared our itinerary, booked hotels and bought our round trip tickets on our national carrier, Kenya Airways. On the D-Day, we met at Parliament parking lot and boarded an official van which ferried us to Jomo Kenyatta Airport (JKIA) for the afternoon two-hour flight.
Our mission was twofold, to understudy how the Rwandese had introduced information technology (IT) in the Parliament and Senate, shortly after President Paul Kagame, had done the same in his paperless Cabinet meetings where carrying briefcase, like in Kenya, was frowned upon.
Mission Possible
We were to use that knowledge and experience after the trip to work closely with Speaker and the Clerk to embrace IT fully in the building, infrastructure, and Standing Orders of the corridors of power.
Meanwhile, the KQ hostess, who had been tipped about our powerful delegation, ensured that they spoilt us with refreshments, meals and alcoholic drinks, as we so wished during the 1.40 minutes flight. It made me feel like an MP; it was just the beginning of a week of one of the best foreign experiences I had ever had as a journalist.
On landing at the airport which was built on one of the many hills in the city that had its summit flattened, we had a team from Rwanda Parliament to welcome and ushers us into a luxurious van for the ride to the hotel they had already booked for us. Another team from the protocol office picked our luggage and followed us in another van in the city branded as: “the land of a thousand hills.”
They then gave us two ours to freshen up in our respective rooms before we met in the restaurant for dinner, getting to know each other better, light jokes and drinks before they gave us the itinerary for the next five days. We went to call it a night, while others stayed late in the bar enjoying some drinks, watching late night movies and chatting along.
Land of a thousand hills
On day one we visited the Parliament and we're received by The Speaker and The Clerk who took us around and answered our many questions. What struck us in the debating chamber was the paperless chamber and installation of electronic voting machines for all the MPs and laptops on their desks.
That was a far cry from what we had back home where the system was still analogue. Each MP and members of the Fourth Estate (journalists) were handed a copy of the day’s Order Paper (programme), and the MPs voted physically. On the other hand, laptops, cell phones and women’s handbags (believe you me!) were officially banned from the chambers as per the strict draconian Standing Orders.
Another shocker was that the number of female MPs and Senators was close to 50/50 with their male counterparts, while in Kenya they were barely 10 per cent in 2006! The Rwandan debating chamber did not have a reserved area for the media to sit, like in Kenya where we had stools overlooking the chamber to follow the proceedings by listening and identifying who was on the floor contributing.
The Rwandan Parliament and the Senate were also paperless and that included the day’s Order Paper! One of the officials told us that journalists had a corner where they could stand, follow and record the debates.
Paperless Parliament and Senate
Said the official: "Here we don't focus much on the journalists, they have an option to attend and cover or not. We encouraged them to wait for the verbatim report to be translated by the Hansard Team from Kinyarwanda and/or French to English, and then sent to them in their respective newsrooms the following day."
Asked why, the official revealed that it was because of a big a problem of misreporting and also a hangover from the genocide in 1994, where over 800,000 were killed when Tutsis and Hutus went for each other’s blood in the name of tribal cleansing.'
The following day we visited the Senate, and were welcomed by the Speaker and the Clerk, who also took us around the chamber before taking us to the boardroom for formal discussions and light refreshments.
Some of the issues raised were the transition the country was going through after the worst human rights violations in its over 50-year history where the country was split down the middle because of tribalism, politics with the church and media accused of fanning the so called genociders (culprits).
The conflict was sparked off after the daylight shooting down with a ground-to-air missile on April 6, 1994, of President Juvenal Habiriyamana’s plane killing him and his Burundian counterpart, Cyprian Ntayamira, both Hutus, and 12 others on the spot. The presidential plane was being flown from a peace meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Kigali, was also blamed on foreign interference by the former colonial powers Germany, Belgium and France, rebels and refugees in neigbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
During our 2006 visit, the tension, suspicion hostility had cooled down, but there was an uneasy calm in the air muted; thanks to President Kagame's benevolent dictator leadership style.
Benevolent Dictator
We witnessed one of his decrees in action on the Saturday when all traffic was blocked, except emergency vehicles like ambulances, fire engines and people either travelling places of worship or to the airport.
The Environmental Day is a mandatory, is national and everyone, from the President, his wife and ministers all the way to the ordinary persons, must fold their sleeves and go to their neighbourhoods to clean up the roads and estates and villages. That is a form of healing after the genocide.
We witnessed it and had that experience during our visit when had an opportunity to leave our hotel and travel around one of the cleanest and beautiful cities in East Africa and beyond.
Other than official programme, we had time to visit and attend a Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) family service on the eve of our return flight to JKIA. The SDAs were given a special exemption to travel and worship in their respective churches by their local chiefs. But they had to make up on one day in the course of the week.
We also had an opportunity to go for a grand dinner in a popular restaurant in the Central Business District (CBD), which was on a slope of one of the many hills, and the parking and building had been scrapped to make room. The neighbours were on another level.
Genocide and Gachacha courts
Our delegation also paid the Kenyan High Commissioner to Rwanda a visit in his beautiful mansion. We exchanged pleasantries about our mission and observation so far before going for a nyama choma (roast meat), fish and ugali (corn meal) sumptuous lunch at a restaurant run by an enterprising Kenyan entrepreneur.
Later on, I met a former news source and friend, Dr Shem Ochuodho, who is a former Rangwe MP, who was serving then as one of President Kagame’s advisors on Information Technology (IT) issues.
For the next two days we were taken on conducted tours of the National Genocide Museum, where we saw the dark and evil face and mind of Rwandans. My heart broke down and tears rolled freely. It had rows and rows of hundreds of skulls, bones, torn and bloodied clothes of men, women and children victims and crude weapons used in the massacres and were stored on shelves, just like in a supermarket where foodstuffs were displayed.
By then, cases of suspected genociders were still going in Gachacha courts in local villages and towns; while those of the masterminds and financiers was held in Arusha, in Tanzania. We witnessed hundreds of the suspects being escorted from Kigali prison, which used to be a Fort during the colonial era, being escorted on foot in the morning to their respective work stations, where professionals among them like engineers, architects, lawyers, plumbers and electricians used their gifts and were paid a stipend.
It was one of the most horrifying scenes I had ever witnessed, second only to a concentration camp in Germany I had visited earlier in 2001, as tears rolled down freely down my cheeks as the tour guide took us around and shared shocking graphic details of how evil the human mind, heart and hands can be.
Also in that museum, one of the many dotted around the country, was samples and photographs from Vietnam, Germany and other parts of the country where genocide was witnessed. From there, we took an afternoon break to recover and reflect on the heavy emotional stress we had experienced for the first time, for most of us.
President Mobutu and Habiriyamana’s favourite hotel
The following morning, we had the privilege of going on an 80Km. countryside tour from Kigali to Kibuye, strategically located along the shores of Lake Kivu, which is surrounded by many volcanic hills and is acidic. It’s literally a dead lake, no water sports, fishing, swimming or domestic use.
We were invited to a tourist hotel for refreshments and lunch before a boat ride to one of the many islands in the lake that jutted out like pimples. We were told that hotel had been popular in the 1980s and ‘90s and had been patronised by former Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko and his Rwandese counterpart, Juvenile Habiriyamana.
I was excited to board the speed boat, but some of our colleagues were terrified. Their anxiety got worse when we started the ride just for a light shower to pour out of nowhere.
Our coxswain had no option but to turn back and head back to the Rwandese beach. What a relief when we landed safely and everyone was keen to return to the safety of our hotels in the capital, some four away. The next day, we packed our luggage and checked out ready for the airport for the trip back home to Nairobi.
Entebbe raid recalled
But the flight made a stopover in Entebbe in Uganda, and was delayed for some time due to mechanical issues. As we waited on board and looked through the windows, I recalled the airport that was made famous in the 1970s when an Israeli special squad flew from the middle eastern country, thousands of miles away, and landed at the airport where they rescued all Israeli hostages held by Palestinians terrorists backed by President Idi Amin Dada, and then flew with them all except one sick elder woman, who had been taken to a Kampala hospital for treatment, back in a dramatic and historic move.
After the one-hour delay, our captain and his crew apologised and we were airborne and later disembarked at JKIA VIP- style an hour later heaving a big sigh of relief having accomplished our mission.
Within the next three months, the MPs moved a motion to digitalise the chamber, give the Speaker the nod to have contractors and suppliers install the cables and accessories required. Since then, MPs were allowed to vote electronically with an option of physical voting. Another impact was MPs were allowed to carry their laptops and tablets into the Chamber and use them at will.
Looking back, the leader of the delegation, Harry Owino, says the RRI mission was a complete success and the august House has proved that it was worth the trip as they have cut on costs on stationary, time and boosted transparency and efficiency. “Yes, what we did as a team was not in vain,” says Owino.
Indeed, by applying the RRI in the august House, performance has since improved and the Kenya National Assembly, and later The Senate, has shifted from business as usual to a results-oriented mindset which has also encompassed Results Based Management (RBM) policy.
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