On top of its colonial past, Burundi has known many disasters in its history. Not a year after its independence in 1962, Burundi experienced its first turmoil when a Hutu rebellion challenged the power of a Tutsi king named Mwami Mwambutse IV. Nine years later, in 1971, more than a hundred thousand Hutus had died in a short but deadly civil war. This would be the first of many more.
Fast forward to 1994, the year the Rwandan genocide occurred. Little known fact to those that do not take up interest in the region is that the Rwandan president’s plane that was shot down also transported the Burundian president. The Rwandan crisis spilled over into Burundi, a civil war ensued, a war based along ethnic lines.
The Arusha peace agreement, which provided for a cease-fire and a roadmap to democratic elections, was fragile. Several major rebel groups did not sign it. However, elections took place in 2005, the Burundian Senate and the National Assembly were sworn in. The presidential election of 2005 was quite different from a normal presidential election. There was no universal suffrage, no direct election and only one candidate: Pierre Nkurunziza. The national assembly and the senate elected Pierre Nkurunziza with 94.4% of the votes in his favor.
Pierre Nkurunziza was a former rebel leader, who later claimed that God spoke to him, and god himself told him he was the man Burundi needed. Now in reality, Pierre Nkurunziza is a former sports teacher, his father was elected to parliament and killed for being a Hutu in 1972. He enlisted into the FDD (Forces for the Defense of Democracy) in 1995, Burundi had already known several years of chaos by then. In 1996, Pierre Nkurunziza was sentenced to the death penalty for his role in several attacks in the capital Bujumbura. However, he was pardoned in 2003, in the spirit of the Arusha peace agreements.
What is important to remember about Pierre Nkurunziza is that he was the strong man of the CNDD-FDD after the ceasefire (there was a short-lived schisms within the rebel group, Nkurunziza’s side prevailed). He converted his military power into political power, strengthening his grip on the country. In the subsequent elections of 2010, the opposition parties made the mistake to stage a boycott. They considered the elections to be unfair, un-democratic and not safe. This gave Nkurunziza and his followers full power over the national assembly, the senate and the presidency. Although the Arusha agreement stated that there needed to be several parties represented in the government, these had little influence due to their weakness in the national assembly.
Now this is some very brief background information, the political and cultural life of Burundi is very complex due to the myriad of forces at play. The Arusha agreement provided with much needed reform and balance in the Burundian society from an ethnic point of view. The agreement provided for quotas, checks and balances, formations, education and freedom in the civil society. This actually worked, and that is probably the saddest of all. If not for Pierre Nkurunziza and his clan, Burundi would have achieved major progress in the last elections.
I’ll give you a hint why, but leave most of it for the next article. In 2015 Burundi was organizing its third presidential elections. However, it would be the first time that a different president takes the reigns. Much like in Nigeria, the international community considers such transitions much more important than having one successful election. A smooth transition is proof of the well functioning of a democracy. I’m sure you will have guessed by now, Pierre Nkurunziza found a way to present himself a third time. He claims, that the first election was indirect, he was not elected by the people themselves, and therefore it should not count. He pushed the irony so far that he asked the constitutional court to rule whether or not he could represent himself. He asked a court of judges, which he nominated and groomed for the past 10 years. This experience demonstrates how the ego of one man and his clan was about to bring down the work of thousands of people, taking thousands of lives with it. It is not God who spoke to Pierre Nkurunziza for he sold his soul to the devil, without the blink of an eye.
*The views expressed in this article are of the author and do not represent those of The Political Analysis.