Social exclusion in Rwanda under different leadership regimes

There have been robust debates on the role that the different leadership regimes that have alternated in Rwanda have had on social exclusion, which have affected different ethnic groups before and after the independence of the country (1962). Literature and the media tend to project a rosy picture of the economic development, the inter-ethnic reconciliation, and the social inclusion that are said to have been taking place under the leadership of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)-led government since 1994. The literature also tends to blame the two post-independence governments led by the two Hutu presidents and the Belgian colonisers for the social exclusion that has affected the different ethnic groups in Rwanda. This social exclusion is often associated with the inter-ethnic conflict that has taken place in Rwanda for many years and which culminated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It is important to acknowledge the economic growth that has been achieved by the Rwandan government since taking power in 1994 (Uwizeyimana 2016). However, if we continue to ignore, or at worst, outright reject evidence that points to the fact that alternation of Hutu and Tutsi2 and the colonial leadership to power in Rwanda has caused ethnic groups to accuse each other of practising social and economic exclusion, we run the risk of repeating the mistakes that led to the 1959 Hutu revolution and the RPF attack in 1990, which culminated in the 1994 genocide. The purpose of this article is to discuss the developmental path of public leadership and development discourses in the Republic of Rwanda since precolonial eras to the present, and to assess the validity of claims that the leaderships of various ethnic groups have practised social exclusion that favoured members of their own ethnic groups at the expense of other ethnic groups. This research follows a historical research approach. The methodology used in this research was mainly qualitative and relied on a robust literature survey of published and non-published print and electronic media, as well as a document analysis of the complex nature and processes of shifts in public leadership and social exclusion associated with these changes in Rwanda. This study found sufficient evidence to support the conclusion that social exclusion targeting the three ethnic groups has indeed taken place in Rwanda when the leadership of the country changed from one ethnic group to the other. Rwanda needs leadership that actively and deliberately promotes policies that take into account the interests of all Rwandans (Twa, Hutu, and Tutsi); not those that seek to divide them through social exclusion. Implementing the recommendations of this research could help in the building of a socially inclusive and ethnically united Rwandan society in which Twa, Hutu, and Tutsi live in harmony.