Manawatu Standard

The West is duped by a dictator

- ROGER BOYES

Paul Kagame is a nimble dictator.

Unlike some leaders, he does not hanker after a private zoo or a golden lavatory. Unlike them, he can conduct an informed hourlong conversati­on about health insurance for his citizens. The president of Rwanda does, however, hold himself indispensi­ble to the nation and so, having already ruled for 23 years, is this week seeking yet another term in office. In theory, he could run the country until 2034.

In this ambition he reveals the true nature of his regime. He is a benign autocrat for those who pay him lipservice, but a ruthless settler of scores against those who oppose him.

The West choose to see the sunny Kagame and not the man in the shadows. That’s a cardinal error. The governance of Africa is of critical importance. In a few years Africa will account for a quarter of the world’s young people. Failed by their leaders, swamped by corruption, unable to find work, at war over water and borders and precious metals, the fit and young will join the swelling trek towards Europe.

Kagame’s Rwanda was supposed to be the model for modernisin­g Africa, an example of intelligen­t state-building that would give citizens an incentive to stay put. Kagame came to power after the horrific 100-day orgy of genocidal violence waged by Hutu tribesmen against Tutsis in 1994. Almost a million were slaughtere­d. Typically, the feet of Tutsi farmers were chopped off before they saw their women raped. Kagame began as a military commander and in crushing Hutu forces ended up marching into Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The West smiled on Kagame because he had done what the United Nations was incapable of doing – using force to end genocide. As a leader, though, he also showed himself capable of holding the country together and, so it seemed from the outside, knitting together the two warring communitie­s and replacing ethnic politics with a code of patriotic citizenshi­p.

Giving him aid was more than guilt money. It was a sign of trust that with good government there could be a new Africa. Moreover, Kagame made it clear that he would try to turn Rwanda into the first African country to wean itself away from aid. And so Paul Kagame became our darling.

Yes, plastic bags are banned in Rwanda, streets are swept, the traffic police no longer trouser bribes as a matter of routine, more than half of the (rubberstam­p) parliament are women. Growth is strong. High-speed internet is being expanded, drones are used to deliver blood to remote health centres. How cool is that?

Not very. Kagame is operating a secret machine that neutralise­s critics and opponents. Beggars are sent to re-education camps. Dissidents are hunted down abroad. One was suffocated in a hotel room in South Africa. I asked Louise Mushikiwab­o, the Rwandan foreign minister, about that. ‘‘We didn’t do it,’’ she said, not altogether convincing­ly, ‘‘but we don’t regret that he’s dead.’’

One of Kagame’s putative rivals in tomorrow’s election, the formidable Diane Rwigara, was smeared by naked pictures of her sent across social media. The leader’s political vehicle, the Rwanda Patriotic Front, is more active in the economy, making a nonsense of Kagame’s sea-green incorrupti­bility.

Kagame rules by fear. Fear of police informers but also fear of what might happen if he ceased to rule and the Hutus again unsheathed their machetes. So he muzzles the press and has his critics arrested as genocidede­niers (a criminal offence) or as separatist­s. According to whistleblo­wers, to ensure that internatio­nal aid continues to flow data are massaged to present a society that is steaming ahead on all the key indices from infant mortality to real poverty levels.

Rwanda has done some things right but it is far from being a model for African developmen­t. Kagame runs his country as a general runs his regiment. He shouldn’t be surprised if one day his citizens stage a mutiny.

The Times

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