Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s declaration this week that he will run for a fourth term in next presidential election slated for next year was not unexpected, but it has fuelled concerns about the future of democracy in Rwanda.

President Kagame, who won the last election with 98.8 percent to earn seven years in office, is eligible for another 10 years under the constitution, which will see him serve for 40 years as president if elected.

“I am happy with the confidence that the Rwandans have shown in me. I will always serve them, as much when I can. Yes, I am, indeed, a candidate,” President Kagame told Jeune Afrique magazine in an interview published on Tuesday.

When asked what he thought the West would think of him running again, he replied, “I’m sorry for the West, but what the West thinks is not my problem.”

“People are supposed to be independent and should be allowed to organise themselves as they wish,” President Kagame added.

But talk is rife that he will find it difficult to shake off the tag of clinging on to power like despots in Africa.

Phil Clark, professor of international politics at SOAS University of London told The EastAfrican that the Rwanda leader “has often contrasted himself with Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who is destined to remain president well into his 80s.”

“He will want to avoid being seen as President Museveni is today: an old man without a coherent vision for the country, still clinging on to power,” the don said.

President Kagame has been in power since 2000 and is now Rwanda’s longest-serving president after his predecessor, Juvenal Habyarimana, who reigned for 21 years from 1973 until his assassination in April 1994.