African rights court throws out case seeking to block Kagame

Arusha. A case filed by the former Rwanda army general and other exiled politicians challenging extension of tenure in office by President Paul Kagame was dismissed on Friday by the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR).

The exiled general and six other Rwanda nationals currently in the diaspora filed the case in July 2015, objecting to amendment of the Constitution of Rwanda to allow the current head of state to seek election to serve for a third term.

The applicants had alleged that Article 101 of the Republic of Rwanda provides the President to serve for only two terms and that the campaign for the amendment of the Constitution had been conducted against a climate of fear.

General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa and six others prayed that the Court order President Kagame and the Rwanda government to strictly abide by and respect the clear wording of Article 101 of the country’s Constitution.

It also prayed that the Arusha-based Court order the Senate of Rwanda to repeal the said Article in the Constitution and that the government should comply with the African Charter which forbids any change of the Constitution to give the president third or other term.

The case dragged on from July 2015 until September last year despite Rwanda’s withdrawal of a declaration it deposited before the Court, allowing it to receive cases from individuals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

In response, Rwanda, which was represented by two lawyers from the ministry of Justice and the Attorney General Chambers Mr Aimable Malaala and Epimaque Rubango Kayihura respectively, denied the allegations.

They asked the Court to dismiss the case on grounds that the application was frivolous, vexatious, tendentious, politically motivated and an attempt to compromise the integrity of the Court since the applicants have a case to answer in Rwandan courts and therefore have no locus standi.

Reading the judgement, the Vice President of the Court, which is the judicial organ of the African Union, Justice Ben Kioko, said the case has been dismissed because the Court cannot grant the interim measures requested which, he said, had been overtaken by events.

The request for interim measures was to stop the referendum on amendment of Article 101 of the Respondent’s Constitution planned for December 17th or 18th December 2015. In view of the extreme urgency of the situation, the Court decided to hold a public hearing on the same on November 25th, 2015.

The applicants requested a deferral of the hearing due to the inability of some of the applicants who wished to travel to Arusha for the same and did not propose a specific date that the hearing should be deferred to. The referendum for the constitutional amendement in Rwanda was duly held on December 17th,2015, thus defeating the purpose of any interim measures.

“In the light of the foregoing, the Court declines to grant the interim measures since the object of the request has been overtaken by events. The application for interim measures is, therefore, no longer of relevance and is consequently dismissed,” Justice Kioko said.