Rwandan President Paul Kagame was sworn in today for a fourth five-year term after winning last month’s elections with an overwhelming majority of votes.

Kagame pledged, in a speech during the inauguration ceremony attended by a number of African heads of state, to “preserve peace and national sovereignty and enhance national security.” Kagame (66 years old) won the elections held last July with 99.18 percent of the votes.

Kagame has been in power in the country since March 2000 with the approval of parliament, following his major role in putting the country back on the path of development after the genocide that Rwanda witnessed in 1994, before being elected in 2003, 2010 and 2017.

In 2015, he oversaw constitutional amendments that reduced the presidential term from seven to five years, and allowed him to run for a fourth term.

Source: Qatar News Agency