By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame was on Sunday sworn-in for a fourth term in office following a sweeping victory in the July election that saw him secure 99% of the vote.
Dozens of heads of state and other dignitaries from African nations joined the inauguration ceremony at a packed 45,000-seat stadium in Kigali, where crowds started gathering early morning.
Kagame took the oath of office before Chief Justice Faustin Ntezilyayo, pledging to “preserve peace and national sovereignty, consolidate national unity.”
The outcome of the July 15 poll is not being contested in the court for iron-fisted Kagame, who has ruled the African nation since the 1994 genocide, as de facto leader and later as an elected President.
He won 99.18% of ballots cast to secure another five years in power, according to the National Electoral Commission.
Rights activists said the 66-year-old’s overwhelming victory was a stark reminder of the lack of democracy in Rwanda.
Only two candidates were authorized to run against him out of eight applicants, with several prominent Kagame critics barred.
Democratic Green Party leader Frank Habineza scraped into second place with 0.5 percent of the vote against 0.32 percent for independent Philippe Mpayimana.
Kagame is credited with rebuilding a ruined nation after the genocide, when Hutu extremists unleashed 100 days of vicious bloodletting targeting the Tutsi minority, killing around 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis but also Hutu moderates.
