Special Feature Rwanda


Rwanda, a small country of 26,300 sq km is the size of the US state of Maryland, but it plans to sterilise over 700,000 men of reproductive age in an effort to curb what the government says is “out-of-control population growth”. Yoletta Nyange reports.


To snip or not to snip? That is the question


N


EARLY 10% OF RWANDA’S population, or at least a third of the male population, is ex- pected to “voluntarily” enrol for a non-reversible procedure


to be sterilised in a government-sponsored population control programme – that is, if you believe Dr Richard Sezibera, until recently Rwanda’s health minister (he was appointed the new secretary general of the East African Community on 19 April 2011). Te sterilisation programme follows the


introduction in 2009 of a two-children-per- woman policy by President Paul Kagame’s government. However, the vasectomy programme,


which has received widespread international media coverage, has met with sore resistance from Rwandans both at home and in the diaspora, judging by the number of online forums dedicated to this topic alone. But the Rwandan government argues


that the country is overpopulated and it is in the national interest to do something now to control the growth of the popula- tion. In the face of mounting rumours of a hidden agenda, however, the government has tried to downplay the magnitude of the vasectomy law but has done nothing to repeal it. The deputy health minister, Agnes


Binagwaho, was the first to come out and say that “there was no target to carry out 700,000 vasectomies”. Tat “would be both unethical and a violation of human


84 | June 2011 New African


President Paul Kigame, whose government’s vasectomy programme is causing controversy


rights”, she added for good measure. But, speaking at the first Common-


wealth Rwanda Media Forum held in Kigali on 29 March 2011, Rwanda’s foreign minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, said the government was questioning itself, to see “at what point do we make sure that pro- grammes and policies are discussed and understood, before we actually implement them”. Ten came Arthur Asiimwe, the direc-


tor of the Rwanda Health Communication Centre, himself a former Reuters journalist. He blamed everything on the media. “Some journalists went and twisted things,” he said. “Te figure of 700,000 was a target for male circumcision only,” he claimed, before his tongue slipped, forcing him to add that, “we do go to families that have 5 or 6 children, and give the man a form to sign that he agrees to be vasectomised. But the wife also has to co-sign.” So, it is not voluntary after all? If any-


thing, the inconsistencies in the official answers so far have increased the worries of concerned Rwandans and human rights activists, who fear the government is up to something more than it has cared to explain to the nation.


According to the opponents of the pol-


icy, since the project is proving hard to sell, a better way would be to look for a brand ambassador in the person of President Kagame himself. “A father of four children, Kagame would be an ideal volunteer,” said one activist in Kigali. “As our leader, he can set an example for his countrymen to follow.” Rwanda prides itself on being the first


African country to be able to afford the use of the cutting-edge “no scalpel” vasectomy on such a large scale. Tis year, the country’s population is


said to have reached an all-time record of 11 million, up from the 4 million of the previous census in 2002, prior to which


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