DAYS after she announced her candidacy for president in May, naked photos of Diane Rwigara, a Rwandan political activist, were leaked online. Two months later she was disqualified from the election, held in August, on dubious technical grounds. But she continued to speak out against President Paul Kagame, who has been in charge of Rwanda since 1994. So this month the government tried a new tactic, detaining Ms Rwigara—and her mother and sister—for alleged tax evasion. She has since been charged with “offences against state security”.
Ms Rwigara’s experience is hardly unique. These days many governments that want to cow their critics are as likely to use the taxman as the secret police. Such tactics are not confined to Africa. The Russian and Chinese governments often use complicated tax rules to intimidate or punish dissidents. Nor are they entirely new. Daniel arap Moi, Kenya’s dictator until 2002, turned his tax collectors into scourges of the opposition. But politically...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2yKVBI2
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