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PP RUEHRN
DE RUEHLGB #0858/01 3491459
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 151459Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6520
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUZEFAA/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP 0134
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0337

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