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Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Monday rebuffed criticisms by the United States of his plan to run for office again in 2017.

In a New Year's address, Kagame had said he will contest in the presidential election next year. Kagame who is 58, said to Rwandans, “You requested me to lead the country again after 2017. Given the importance and consideration you attach to this, I can only accept.”

On December 17 and 18, 6.28 million Rwandans living abroad and at home cast their votes in a constitutional referendum. The current constitution, adopted in May 2003, limits the president to two terms in office of seven years each. 98% of the voters voted in favour of the amendment that would allow Kagama to contest for a third term of seven years. This term will expire in 2024, by which time the constitutional amendment that shortens a presidential term from seven years to five years will come into force.

Kagame will still be eligible to contest in that new dispensation. If he wins reelection for the two terms, he will be in office till 2034, when he will be 77 years old and he would have ruled for 34 years.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said on Saturday that the U.S. is "deeply disappointed that President Paul Kagame has announced his intention to run for a third term in office." Kirby said the U.S. believes transitions of power are essential for entrenching strong democratic principles.  

On his Twitter page, the Rwandan president wrote on Monday, "There are quite many very disappointing things happening across the globe we hope to carry our own burden and not be others' burden...!!!"

He said Africa faces so many problems such as poverty, disease, governance etc., and these problems will not be solved by the "attitude" of disappointment.

In neighbouring Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza also sought a third term, and won a disputed election in July, which has resulted in violence that has claimed at least 400 lives and the United Nations has warned of a possible third genocide in the country. Nkurunziza, who has been in office since 2005, said a court ruling allowed him to contest the election.

An attempt to extend the stay in office of the President of Burkina Faso led to mass protests forcing the president Blaise Compaore to quit power in 2014 after almost three decades in office.    

Paul Kagame ascended to the presidency in 2000, after the resignation of then president, Pasteur Bizimungu. Kagame had been Vice President and Minister of Defence from 1994 -- after leading a rebel army that ended the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed -- to 2000. He won the presidential election for his first term of seven years in August 2003.