Rwandan Patriotic Front The Rwandan Patriotic Front ( also translated as : Rwandese Patriotic Front ; or referred to as : Patriotic Front of Rwanda ) abbreviated as RPF ( also often referred to as FPR from ) is the current ruling political party of Rwanda , led by President Paul Kagame . It governs in a coalition with other parties . In the parliamentary election held on 30 September 2003 , the party won ( as part of the ruling coalition ) 33 out of 53 seats . Paul Kagame was also elected as President in the same year . Background . The RPF was created in 1987 by the Tutsi refugee diaspora in Uganda . The first Tutsi refugees fled to Uganda to escape ethnic purges in the beginning of 1959 . These resulted from the " social revolution " of 1959 , led by Grégoire Kayibanda , that overthrew the Tutsi - led monarchy , and instability that continued through independence from Belgium in 1962 . While 50 , 000 to 70 , 000 Tutsi arrived in the initial refugee influx , periodic ethnic violence resulted in a refugee population of about 200 , 000 by 1990 , though only about 82 , 000 of these had registered as refugees with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR ) . Uganda had perhaps the harshest refugee laws in the region . Refugees were confined to designated refugee camps and refugee status was transferred between generations : the children born in Uganda from refugee parents were themselves considered refugees . However , as the refugee numbers grew the population overflowed the boundaries of the camps set up during the initial refugee crisis . The one benefit of refugee status was that it gave children access to United Nations aid , in particular UNHCR scholarships , which allowed most young people to escape the camps and find work in urban areas in Uganda and abroad . This , along with the resulting success of many Tutsi , bred resentment among Ugandan nationals , which often manifested as work - place discrimination . During the political crisis of the late 1960s , the administration of Milton Obote passed a bill called the Control of Alien Refugees Act , which declared Rwandese to be a special class subject to arbitrary detention . In 1969 , Obote ordered all " unskilled foreigners " to be removed from government jobs , affecting thousands of Banyarwanda . ( " Banyarwanda " are all persons who speak the Kinyarwanda language , which includes the indigenous Banyarwanda who lived in southern border regions , the descendants of Hutus who had come as migrant laborers in the mid - 1920s , and the more recent Tutsi refugees . ) Obote also ordered a census of all ethnic Banyarwanda , with the intention of ensuring that they would have no influence over the political process . The census was interrupted by the 1971 coup of Idi Amin , which was greeted with relief by many Banyarwanda . While some Banyarwanda joined the security forces , others joined the anti - Amin forces gathering in Tanzania . Prominent among these was a teenage Fred Rwigyema , who was recruited by Yoweri Museveni into his Front for National Salvation . Rwandese Alliance for National Unity ( RANU ) . Following the overthrow of Amin in 1979 , the Tutsi refugee intelligentsia set up the region ' s first political refugee organization , the Rwandese Alliance for National Unity ( RANU ) , to discuss the possible return to Rwanda . Though primarily a forum for intellectual discussion , it became radicalized after Obote ' s rigged election of 1980 resulted in many Tutsi refugees joining Museveni in fighting the Ugandan Bush War . In response , Obote denounced Museveni ' s National Resistance Army ( NRA ) as composed of Banyarwanda . A failed attempt to force all Tutsi refugees into the refugee camps in February 1982 resulted in a massive purge , driving 40 , 000 refugees back into Rwanda . Rwanda declared that they recognized only 4000 of these as Rwandan nationals , while Uganda declared that they would take back only 1000 . The remaining 35 , 000 were left in a legal limbo along the border region that lasted for years , from where many refugee youth left to join the NRA . Two of the 27 people who were part of the 1981 NRA raid at Kabamba that began the war were Tutsi refugees : Fred Rwigyema and Paul Kagame , who had grown up together in Kahunge refugee camp and were both active members of RANU . By the time that the victorious NRA entered Kampala in 1986 , about a quarter of its 16000 combatants were Banyarwanda , while Rwigyema was its deputy commander . After the Museveni government was formed , Rwigyema was appointed deputy minister of defense and deputy army commander - in - chief , second only to Museveni in the military chain of command for the nation . Kagame was appointed acting chief of military intelligence . Other Tutsi refugees were highly placed : Peter Baingana was head of NRA medical services and Chris Bunyenyezi was the commander of the 306th Brigade , while Adam Waswa was the Commander of the 316th Brigade at Moroto in northern Uganda , Steven Ndugute was commander of the 79th Battalion , and Kanyemera Sam Kaka was Military Police Commander . Tutsi refugees formed a disproportionate number of NRA officers for the simple reason that they had joined the rebellion early and thus had accumulated more experience . The contributions of the Banyarwanda in the war were immediately recognized by the new government . Six months after taking power , Museveni reversed the decades - old legal regime and declared that Banyarwanda who had resided in Uganda would be entitled to citizenship after 10 years . In December 1987 , RANU held its seventh congress in Kampala and renamed itself the Rwanda Patriotic Front . The new RPF , dominated by Banyarwanda veterans of the war , was far more militaristic than the original RANU . Citizenship and indigeneity . Some critics of the RPF have argued that the Tutsi diaspora always intended to form an " army within an army " that would be used to invade Rwanda . This argument states that the Tutsi rebels of RANU had joined with Museveni as part of a long - planned conspiracy . However , Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani argues that the 1990 invasion was the result of a debate among the refugees in response to events , the most important of which was the rising nativist urge in Uganda . Criticism that the NRA was overly dominated by refugees resulted in Major - General Fred Rwigyema being transferred from the powerful position of deputy commander of the army to the more ceremonial position of deputy minister of defense in 1987 . The next year he was removed from even this position . Nevertheless , in a 1988 conference of the political diaspora in Washington , D . C . , most of the exiled community agreed that the Tutsi should become naturalized citizens of the countries in which they resided , while those who wished to return could do so through a process of peaceful negotiation with the Rwandan government . The final change came with a 1990 debate on ranches in Mawogola County , Masaka District and the issues it raised about whether citizenship should emanate from resident or indigenous status . The ranches had been gradually taken over by 200 , 000 pastoralists , about 80 , 000 of whom were said to be refugees . The owners of the land had raised the rent for using the land and for access to water , eventually resulting in a squatter uprising and outbreak of violence . A political firestorm erupted when the government sided with the squatters , as ranchers and others accused the president of favoring the nonindigenous Banyarwanda over the ' real Ugandans ' . The opposition managed to put the topic of indigeneity and its relationship to citizenship and legal rights at the center of the political debate . Thus backed into a corner and in need of maintaining his political coalition , the president backed down , agreeing that the Banyarwanda were foreigners with no rights as citizens . Within the army , refugee officers were systematically removed , with the replacement of refugees in favor of individuals with claims to indigeneity eventually extending into other government agencies . A senior RPF commander , speaking in 1995 , summed up the effect this experience had on him : " You stake your life and at the end of the day you recognize that no amount of contribution can make you what you are not . You can ' t buy it , even with blood . " Rwandan Civil War and Genocide . On 1 October 1990 , the Rwandan Patriotic Army ( RPA ) , the armed wing of the RPF , deserted their posts in the Ugandan army and invaded northern Rwanda . After initial gains in threatening Kigali , the offensive was turned back with the help of Zairean and French troops sent to reinforce the Habyarimana regime . The RPF suffered a major setback when Rwigyema was killed in the second day of the war and was forced to retreat in disarray into the mountainous border region . There the RPA regrouped under Kagame and began a classic insurgency campaign . The war reached a stalemate and the two sides entered into peace negotiations . These talks resulted in the signing of the Arusha Accords in 1993 to create a power - sharing government . The cease - fire ended on 6 April 1994 when Habyarimana ' s plane was shot down near Kigali Airport , killing the President and Cyprien Ntaryamira , the President of Burundi . It is still unknown who launched the attack ; the RPF blamed Hutu extremists in the Rwandan Government , while the Government claimed that the RPF was responsible for the attack . The shooting down of the plane served as the catalyst for the Rwandan Genocide , which began within a few hours . Over the course of approximately 100 days , between 500 , 000 and 1 , 000 , 000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu were killed in apparently well - planned attacks , on the orders of the interim government . Many Twa were also killed , despite not being directly targeted . The Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive , and took control of the country methodically by cutting off government supply routes and taking advantage of the deteriorating social order . The international response was limited , with major powers reluctant to strengthen the token few hundred in the UN peacekeeping force . The RPF took control of Kigali on 4 July and the whole country by July 18 , 1994 . A transitional government was sworn in with Pasteur Bizimungu as President . After its conquest of Rwanda , the RPF was split into a political division which retained the RPF name , and a military one , called the Rwandan Patriotic Army ( now the Rwandan Defence Forces ) . The RPF and the ADFL carried out mass atrocities during the First Congo War with as many as 222 , 000 Rwandan Hutu refugees going missing . The RPF also helped to stop and save many innocent civilians lives following the Rwandan Genocide . Leadership of Rwanda . The RPF continues to be the dominant political party in Rwanda under President Paul Kagame .