Tag Archives: maintain

Those who have benefited from historical distortions such as the Hamitic Myth in the Great Lakes region are trying to use all instruments to maintain the status quo. Batutsi and Bahima – and their Bahororo and Banyamulenge cousins – who have dominated Bahutu and Bairu for over six centuries with the support of Europeans originally from aristocratic families since colonial days have come back to power through the barrel of the gun with external assistance. Their numerical inferiority and unpopularity do not allow them to get and sustain political power by real democratic means – winning elections at gun point and/or banning popular parties under the pretext of being sectarian is not democracy as we understand it in the sense of free and fair electoral processes from registration, to campaigning, casting ballots, counting votes and announcing results in a transparent and inclusive manner.

To hang onto power, they are therefore resorting to military might and expensive intelligence networks, giving quality education to their children at home and abroad at public expense, dividing tactics that have created so many non-economically viable, almost tribal-based districts, controlling strategic ministries, impoverishing the majority ethnic groups by denying them quality education, healthcare, food and nutrition security, character assassination and intimidation and aligning themselves with foreign powers that in turn are using them to advance their interests in the Great Lakes region in ways that are contributing to instability, economic distortions such as focusing on illegal natural resource exploitation and massive abuse of human rights.