Into this tense void stepped Dr. Charles Murigande, a soft-spoken mathematician turned politician, who found himself pitted against the Vice President Paul Kagame in a parliamentary vote to choose Rwanda's next leader.
Speaking on The Long Form podcast, Dr. offered a rare glimpse into that pivotal momentâ€"revealing Pasteur Bizimungu's defiance against the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) and his own unexpected role in a contest that shaped modern Rwanda.
At 42, Murigande was a respected RPF secretary general, but nothing prepared him for the call to stand as a candidate against Kagame, the party's towering chairman.
'We were in a post-genocide transition with a constitution stating that if the president resigned, the RPF would propose two candidates for a parliamentary vote,' he recalled. 'I was selected with Vice President Kagame after an internal party vote where I came second.'
The crisis began on March 23, 2000, when Bizimungu, Rwanda's first post-genocide president, tendered his resignation.
Dr. Murigande, however, saw it coming. 'Bizimungu's resignation was both a surprise and not,' he said. 'There were internal RPF problems, especially over forming a new cabinet.'
The RPF, determined to root out corruption, had decided no ministers from the 1994 cabinet would continue, a move to reset governance in a nation reeling from genocide's aftermath.
Bizimungu, appointed president in 1994 to signal unity, disagreed. He insisted on retaining one minister, Patrick Mazimhaka, believing his presidential authority trumped party decisions. 'He thought as president he had authority, but he was wrong,' Murigande stated bluntly.
The tension escalated when Bizimungu delivered what Murigande called a 'violent speech' during the swearing-in of a new cabinet led by Bernard Makuza.
'It was an attack on nearly every institution,' he recounted. Bizimungu criticized the RPF's accountability processes, which were probing mismanagement, and lashed out at parliament's efforts to curb corruption. Dr. Murigande believes the speech was Bizimungu's breaking point.
'Probably, he preempted it because he knew that the political bureau had the capacity to remove him. So, instead of waiting for him to be removed by the political party he resigned,' he explained.
Two days later, Bizimungu resigned, leaving Rwanda leaderless and the RPF scrambling to stabilize the transition.
Enter the parliamentary vote of April 17, 2000. Dr. Murigande, a refugee-turned-scholar who'd once starved in Burundi's camps, faced Kagame who'd led the RPF to victory in 1994.
The stakes were immense: a misstep could unravel Rwanda's fragile recovery. Yet Dr. Murigande harbored no illusions of winning.
'I didn't want to win,' he admitted with characteristic humility. 'I told journalists if I were a voter, I'd choose Kagame. He was the better candidate.'
Kagame secured 81 of 86 ballots, with Murigande garnering five. For Murigande, the outcome was a relief. 'No regrets at all, especially seeing how Rwanda has evolved over 25 years under Kagame,' he said, reflecting on the nation's journey from ashes to prosperity.
Bizimungu's defiance, Dr. Murigande revealed, stemming from a misunderstanding of power. As vice chairman of the RPF, Bizimungu saw himself above the party, a view that clashed with the RPF's collective ethos.
'He was wrong.' The episode exposed fault lines in the government of national unity, formed under the Arusha Accords to bridge ethnic divides. Bizimungu, hoping his resignation would spark protests, was mistaken.
'He thought the Hutu population would rise up,' Murigande said. 'Nobody demonstrated. Shops stayed open, and the situation remained calm.' Rwanda's trust in the RPF's maturity held firm.
Dr. Murigande, who returned to his RPF duties post-vote, saw it as a moment of clarity. 'The people knew the RPF was in control,' he said, crediting the party's discipline for averting chaos.
Kagame's ascent marked a new chapter, one Dr. Murigande endorsed wholeheartedly. 'The RPF trusted I could be a good president if chosen, but I campaigned for him,' he reiterated.
Théophile Niyitegeka
