Kagame addresses fourth term concerns

President Paul Kagame has suggested the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) look for his successor because he does not plan to be around forever. News24 reports that the Rwandan strongman last week claimed it was not his plan to become the country's leader. ‘I was lucky to be alive to the point that I became President. It wasn't by plan at all,’ he said. In 1994, when the RPF, then a rebel force, marched from Uganda to stop the genocide in Rwanda, Kagame held two offices – the Vice-Presidency and the Defence Ministry. Under the transitional government, Pasteur Bizimungu was the head of state, but then Kagame took charge in 2000. Kagame said he finally stepped up and is still around because ‘the people who wanted me to be President are still telling me they want me’. If elected in Monday's poll, he would be starting his fourth term in office amid growing concern from some quarters of the international community that he has stayed too long.