Diane Rwigara, who unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 2017, is once again entering the race for the highest office, challenging incumbent President Paul Kagame, who himself seeks a fourth term.
“A new chapter for Rwanda begins now. Together, we will write history!” declared Diane Rwigara on the social media platform X, accompanied by the hashtag #Twagiye (“Let’s go!” in Kinyarwanda).
In the 2017 presidential election, the Electoral Commission rejected Diane Rwigara’s candidacy due to suspicions of falsified signatures supporting her participation.
Arrested for document forgery and accused along with her sister and mother of “incitement to insurrection,” the unsuccessful candidate was eventually acquitted a year later of these “unfounded” charges according to the judiciary.
Recently, the Rwigara family faced another tragedy when Anne, Diane’s sister, was found dead in her California home at the end of December 2023. Her sudden death, linked to multiple organ failure, left her loved ones in shock.
In 2015, the patriarch, businessman Assinapol Rwigara, a former financier of the ruling RPF party, died in a car accident. The Rwigara family raised doubts about the circumstances of this tragedy and denounced the authorities’ harassment against them. These accusations were consistently denied by the Rwandan government.
The other two candidates in the race are Frank Habineza, a member of parliament and leader of the Democratic Green Party, an opposition party authorized by the government, and Philippe Mpayima, an independent candidate.