MPs in Bid to Stamp Out 'Genocide Ideology'

published in The Nation (Nairobi)

18 January 2008
Posted to the web 18 January 2008

Kezio-Musoke David
Kigali

Rwanda's parliament has called for an extraordinary session. The session is distinctive in nature because it seeks to discuss the findings of an evil that is believed to have steered the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

This evil, referred to as "genocide ideology", according to the findings, is slowly creeping back into the society. And this time through a cross-section of Rwanda's secondary schools.


It all started late last year when a report presented to parliament by a team of MPs investigating the existence of "genocide ideology" since August 2007 revealed an alarming rate of cases of its existence in several secondary schools around the country.

"Genocide ideology" is a term used to describe the notion genocide perpetrators used to instill a hate campaign that creates divisions among two distinctive groups, usually ethnic groups.

These ideologies cause differences based on individual characteristic features, religion, race and tribal sentiments. But, ideologies are usually baseless and are used by leaders to incite hate against one another in order to yield power and control of resources. Adolf Hitler used the same principle of "genocide ideology" against Jews, describing them as parasites, bacteria and viruses.

Hitler's Nazi ideology revolved around the fantasy of Germany as a living organism containing virulent Jewish micro-organisms. Genocide on Jews was undertaken as a form of immunology, a struggle to kill pathogenic cells in order to save the organism.

In colonial Rwanda, the Belgians who served partially as colonialists identified each Rwandan with identification card as Hutu or Tutsi and this kind of division is believed to have bred all sorts of genocide ideologies.

The repeated references to "Hutu" and "Tutsi" labelling is feared to have continued to promote animosity among a section of some Rwandans, something that has prompted ethnographers to stop recognising the two as distinct ethnic groups.

They speak the same language, practise the same religions and share the same cultures.

The report presented to a parliamentary plenary session in December last year showed that there was evidence that some Rwandan schools were encouraging a platform to promote "genocide ideology".

Different uniforms

According to the New Times, a daily English newspaper, authorities in a school called Association pour la Culture, l'Education et le Development Integre de Mataba in Gakenke District, were found to have introduced and encouraged different uniforms for genocide survivors.

The MPs are now querying that motive. The MPs' inquiry came up with a list of 11 schools, where students rebuked each other depending on which ethnic group they came from.

Some students are reported to have developed a habit of writing to each other anonymous genocide-fuelling letters. One of the letters presented as evidence said, " ni inzoka, baraturambiye kandi tuzabica", which is literally translated to mean " they are snakes. We are fed up with them and we will kill them".

The report says that at the Institute Prespyterien de Kirinda, Karongi District in Rwanda's Western Province, there were hostile actions against a genocide survivor.

A cross-section of some students were found torching their colleague's clothing. Led by MP Donatilla Mukabalisa, the investigating team told their colleagues that in one particular school they found writings similar to the infamous ten "Hutu Commandments", which were once published in the former extremist Kangura newspaper, inciting violence against their victims, in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

The killings were sparked off by the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana in a plane crash in April 1994 and ended when rebels led by Paul Kagame, the current president seized power mid 1994.

Rwanda's parliamentarians have gone ahead to demand an immediate enactment of the law to punish those who harbour these kind of genocidal sentiments.

One MP, Juvénal Nkusi, said the law will not only protect genocide survivors in schools but also cure the country of an ideology that dragged Rwanda into the massacre of more than a million Rwandans in 1994. The report quoted the alarming rate of "genocide ideology" in two Northern Province schools, at 97 per cent.

This is something that prompted parliament to probe two Cabinet members, Dr Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, the Minister of Education, and her junior Joseph Murekeraho to explain their progress in containing the problem. The duo's explanations didn't really convince the law makers, labelling them careless. Dr Mujawamariya said the fact that there is prevalent genocide ideology in some schools does not mean that she, as the custodian of the education system in the country, is a subversive politician.

"We are not behind it and let me say that we are devising tough measures to stamp out the problem," Dr Mujawamariya told enraged MPs.

Parliament thereafter set up a six-man commission to help Dr Mujawamariya to further scrutinise the probe report.


In one case, Ms Alphonsine Musabyayezu the headmistress of Gakiarage Primary School in Nyagatare, Eastern Province was suspended by authorities and parents over "genocide ideology".

It is alleged that the headmistress dismissed and transferred teachers in the school basing on ideological leaning.

Ms Musabyayezu is also reported to have suspended the English section at the school, without any consultation with district leaders, a clear manifestation of her ill motives. Though Rwanda, a former French colony, is predominantly Francophone, her joining the East African Community and her application to join the Commonwealth has seen the English language being introduced as a compulsory part of the curriculum in recent years.

Launching a new drive to fight genocide ideology, State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary of Education, Mr Joseph Murekeraho, addressed 600 head teachers at Lycee de Kigali and told them that school disciplinary committees will be introduced with powers to inspect and review students' behaviour on a daily basis. "It's shameful to hear of 'genocide ideology' in the education sector, which is expected to transform our society from such a horrific mind-set," Mr Murekeraho said. Mr Narcisse Musabeyezu, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Education, said that genocide ideology in schools was a litmus test to the elite who are expected to uphold the future socio-economic revolution of this country.


Under their national umbrella body, Rwanda Federation for Directors of Secondary Schools, school directors have come out to boost joint efforts to fight genocide ideologies.

The federation's vice chairman, Mr Peter Claver Kabanda, has suggested the establishment of "Never Again, Unity and Reconciliation" clubs in all schools.

Vice Speaker of Parliament Mr Denis Polisi is quoted in the local press late last week saying that the major reason for calling for an extraordinary session is to discuss the report of the commission and draw measures to contain the genocide ideology in schools.