{UAH} US warns Paul Kagame not to seek third term as Rwandan president

US warns Paul Kagame not to seek third term as Rwandan president

African leader was once hailed as a new hope for a continent riddled with corrupt dictators but now appears intent on changing constitution to run again

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Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, who has been criticised repeatedly for stifling opposition and interfering in neighbouring countries affairs  Photo: Rex

By Rob Crilly, New York

4:50PM BST 05 Sep 2015

The US has warned President Paul Kagame that he faces instability and uncertainty if he presses ahead with plans to change the constitution of Rwanda to allow him to stay on for a third term.

Mr Kagame was once hailed as part of a new generation of African leaders, helping usher in democracy after taking de facto power at the end of the country's bloody civil war in 1994.

Tony Blair is among his advisers on governance.

However, he has been criticised repeatedly for stifling opposition, interfering in neighbouring countries affairs – including the long-running conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo where more than five million people have died – and trying to cling to power.

Protestors against Paul Kagame, Rwandan president and Intelligence chief General Karenzi Karaki demonstrate outside Westminster Magistrates court in London  Photo: Getty Images

In July, parliamentarians voted in favour of changing the constitution to allow Mr Kagame to stay on for a third term. He has now set up a constitutional commission to review the country's two-term limit.

John Kirby, spokesman for the State Department, called on Mr Kagame to honour his previous commitment to respect term limits.

"We do not support those in positions of power changing constitutions solely for their political self-interest," he said.

Mr Kagame has fallen from international favour since the days when he was seen as the hero who led Rwanda's Tutsis to victory over the genocidal Hutu onslaught.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame  Photo: AP

In June General Karenzi Karake, his head of security, was arrested in the UK over alleged war crimes in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. He was eventually released after a court decided he could not be extradited to Spain.

Now he is the latest African leader to be accused of "stayism".

It follows unrest in Burundi where President Pierre Nkurunziza won a third term earlier this year. More than 100 people have died in the violence amid protests that his run was unconstitutional.

Barack Obama seized on the issue during his African visit in July.

"When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife, as we've seen in Burundi," he said in Ethiopia. "And this is often just a first step down a perilous path."

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

"But this I know, UPC believed and still believes in

very high education. We can call Obote all bad names we have, but the bottom line remains that he got more scholarships for Buganda than all previous Uganda leaders combined. That includes Sir Edward Mutesa, President Lule, President Binayisa, up to and into Ssabasajja Mutebi. Who all happen to be Baganda leaders." Mulindwa

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