Sylvie Kinigi (; born 24 November 1953) is a Burundian politician and economist who served as prime minister of Burundi from 10 July 1993 to 7 February 1994, and acting president from November 1993 to 5 February 1994, making her the second African woman to serve as a president.
Born to a Tutsi family, she earned a degree in banking from the University of Burundi in 1979 and another diploma from the Centre de Formation de la Profession Bancaire in Paris. Politically, Kinigi was closely affiliated with the Union pour le Progrès national (UPRONA), Burundi's only legal political party at the time, and was an active member of the Union des Femmes Burundaises, a subgroup of UPRONA, serving as a member of its central committee by 1987. In that capacity she lobbied for legislative changes and government measures to benefit women. In 1990 Kinigi was hired by the Bank of the Republic of Burundi to direct its department of research and statistics, and the following year she was placed in charge of Burundi's structural adjustment program.
In the summer of 1993 Burundi hosted free elections, which were won by UPRONA's rival, Front pour la Démocratie au Burundi (FRODEBU). The new FRODEBU President of Burundi, Melchior Ndadaye, appointed Kinigi prime minister of Burundi on 10 July. Kinigi wished to pursue economic development while she was prime minister, but thought that this could not be achieved until ethnic tensions between Tutsis and Hutus were reduced. Thus, she declared that ethnic reconciliation would be her top priority. On 21 October President Ndadaye and several other officials were killed by Tutsi soldiers in a coup attempt, leaving her the highest-ranking official alive and the de facto head of state of Burundi.
She joined her surviving ministers in the French embassy until she could return to her residence under French military guard as the coup failed. Though her government proved unable to contain the ethnic violence following the coup, she played a key role in brokering a political compromise that allowed for the election of Cyprien Ntaryamira as the next president. She resigned when he took office in 1994 and assumed an executive position at the Banque Commerciale du Burundi. She then held several international positions before returning to Burundi in 2008 and becoming an independent economic consultant.
Early life and education
Sylvie Ntigashira was born on 24 November 1953 in Mugoyi, Ruanda-Urundi (today in Bujumbura Rural Province). Ethnically, she is Tutsi. Her father was a merchant, while her mother farmed and maintained their home. The third of six children, Ntigashira was allowed to attend school while the oldest daughter in the family helped their mother. She was given a primary and secondary education by nuns in the Ijenda parish. She then studied at the University of Burundi under the Faculty of Economic Sciences, graduating in 1979 with a degree in banking and credit. In 1990 she earned a Diplômes d'études supérieures from the Centre de Formation de la Profession Bancaire in Paris.
In 1973, Ntigashira married a Burundian academic, Firmin Kinigi, who had taught her in school, and had four or five children with him. He was ethnically Hutu. making her responsible for the implementation of Burundi's structural adjustment program. In that capacity she conducted negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and foreign donors. Impressed with her work, Buyoya subsequently appointed her Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Planning. From the embassy she continued to issue directives on government policy. Buyoya and his predecessor, Jean Baptiste Bagaza, both gave their support to her government and the coup failed due to an outbreak of violence and international condemnation. On 7 November she left the embassy and returned to her residence under French military guard. Tutsi extremists continued to employ violence in the aftermath of the coup, intimidating Kinigi's government and hampering its ability to provide leadership to the country.
Kinigi's government—comprising 15 of the original 22 ministers—stabilised the situation in Bujumbura, the capital, but proved unable to contain the ethnic violence across the country following the coup, in which thousands died. The radical Tutsi UPRONA faction became disgruntled with her actions before and especially during the crisis. With regards to her failure to attend a commemoration for the anniversary of the death of erstwhile UPRONA leader Louis Rwagasore on 13 October, the newspaper Panafrika wrote, "for a prime minister who said she was from Uprona, missing this ceremony was for some 'proof' that Sylvie Kinigi was not from Uprona. Some do not hesitate to say that if it hadn't been for this October 21 coup, she would now be at FRODEBU". The newspaper L’Observateur argued "not having been mandated by UPRONA, knowing simply that she is Prime Minister thanks to God and to Ndadaye and to FRODEBU, the first lady [sic] will behave during the crisis of October 1993 as one would expect. She will be totally absent and when she tries to come forward, it is to tirelessly repeat the theses of FRODEBU". On 15 November she wrote a letter to the Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity, appealing for a military intervention to restore order in the country. The army and opposition politicians denounced this as a proposal for a "recolonization" of Burundi. In December her government appointed a commission of inquiry led by the Procurator General to investigate human rights abuses that had occurred after the coup, but its work never began due to objections from the parliamentary opposition.
Kinigi, burdened by the leadership responsibility placed upon her by the political vacuum, sought to enable the selection of a new president. On 9 January 1994, Four days later the National Assembly elected Ntaryamira to become president in a vote, 78 to one. Ntaryamira was scheduled to be inaugurated on 22 January, but the parliamentary opposition, led by UPRONA, filed a suit with the Constitutional Court to block the installment. They argued that Article 182 of the constitution, which stipulated that the document could not be modified in times of national crisis, rendered the National Assembly's amending of Article 85 void. FRODEBU parliamentarians argued that the change was necessary to fill the vacancy, since holding a national election to replace the former president would have been impossible. and the Constitutional Court would be reinstated. Ntaryamira was sworn in on 5 February.
See also
- List of the first women holders of political offices in Africa
Notes
References
Works cited
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