Rwanda has the highest representation of women in parliament which is at 63.8%. However, there have been great concerns regarding the extent of transformation and meaningful women empowerment in parliament. Ndung’u (2013:2) is sceptical on these gains as she believes that they have masked ongoing difficulties faced by Rwandan women in parliament in terms of their representation and participation in other decision-making positions outside of parliament. For Ndung’u (2013:2) the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) pushing for its own female candidates in being elected in reserved seats whether it is to achieve a required quota or due to the women being loyalty to the RPF-led government, rather than their actual capabilities and competence in being able to occupy the office is concerning. This has become a major critic against the RPF government by analyst and argued as a possible fronting of women in these parliamentary seats for political expediency as a rubberstamp of the government’s agenda (Ndung’u, 2013).
The advocating of women’s inclusion in politics in the hopes that it will calm the political climate yet excluding them from political dissent is problematic (Hogg, 2009). The idea that having women in power will foster a more cooperative parliament, political stability and less conflict is not always the case as seen through Margret Thatcher who was cut throat ruthless in her approach to politics. For Hogg (2013:36) Thatcher showed little interest in dealing with issues that ‘commonly’ affected woman. In the case of Rwanda the discourse surrounding ethnicity is still not addressed despite there being an increase of women parliamentarians. The ethnicity issue in post-conflict Rwanda is a sensitive one and if women were to speak directly to the latter this would give them a more meaningful position, leaving a legacy of transformation that would define their involvement in Rwanda’s political space. Policies alone will not resolve the ethnicity base conflict but rather intense talks and mediation is needed to move forward (Hogg, 2013).
During the genocide, many women and children were raped, sexually assaulted and impregnated by rebel groups, which the RPF government only recently addressed after women parliamentarians pushed for an Act to be implemented to protect the rights of women and children. The Gender-based violence (GBV) Act was adopted on August 3rd 2006 by general consensus in the Rwandan Parliament (Devlin and Elgie, 2008). The bill was adopted after a two-day deliberation that ended unanimously among the parliamentarians decision to adopt it. The law aimed for the prevention, protection and punishment of any GBV and was prepared by the Forum for Rwandan Women Parliamentarians (FFRP) (Devlin and Elgie, 2008). Women parliamentarians met with various ministries, the public prosecution, and communities at a grass-root level throughout Rwanda, illustrating hands on approach and utilization of their position of power meaningful to fight a good cause (Devlin and Elgie, 2008).
In conclusion, although Rwanda has the highest number of women in parliament and is applauded for promoting their participation in leadership, the level of violence against women remains high. This has shown that the women in parliament have a voice and the 2006 GBV bill speaks to this empowerment. This is one of the many mild stone achievements in women empowerment but there is still a long way to go before women are given ‘proper’ equal rights and recognition as their male colleagues in power.
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