Rwanda: From the Horror to the Envy of Africa
Blood coursed through the streets of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, in April 1994 as machete-wielding militiamen began a campaign of genocide that killed as many as 800,000 people, one of the great horrors of the late 20th century.
Thirty years later, Kigali is the envy of Africa. Smooth streets curl past gleaming towers that hold banks, luxury hotels and tech startups. There is a Volkswagen car plant and an mRNA vaccine facility. A 10,000-seat arena hosts Africa’s biggest basketball league and concerts by stars like Kendrick Lamar, the American rapper, who performed there in December. Tourists fly in to visit Rwanda’s famed gorillas. Government officials from other African countries arrive for lessons in good governance. The electricity is reliable. Traffic cops do not solicit bribes. Violence is rare.
The architect of this stunning transformation, President Paul Kagame, achieved it with harsh methods that would normally attract international condemnation. Opponents are jailed, free speech is curtailed and critics often die in murky circumstances. Mr. Kagame’s soldiers have been accused of massacre and plunder in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. For decades, Western leaders have looked past the abuses. Some have expressed guilt for their failure to halt the genocide, when Hutu extremists massacred people mostly from Mr. Kagame’s Tutsi ethnic group.
Mr. Kagame, 66, commemorated the 30th anniversary of the genocide this month. But the anniversary was also a reminder that he has been in power for just as long. He won the last presidential election with 99 percent of votes. The outcome of the next one, scheduled for July, is in little doubt. He could lead for another decade.
Critics say that Mr. Kagame’s repressive tactics, previously seen as necessary to stabilize Rwanda after the genocide, increasingly appear to be a way for him to entrench his iron rule.
A spokeswoman for Rwanda’s government did not respond to questions.
Ethnic Tutsis dominate the top echelons of Mr. Kagame’s government, while the Hutus who make up 85 percent of the population remain excluded from true power, critics say. It is a sign that ethnic division is still very much a factor in the way Rwanda is governed.
“The Kagame regime is creating the very conditions that cause political violence in our country,” said Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, his most prominent political opponent. “Lack of democracy, absence of rule of law, social and political exclusion — it’s the same problems we had before.”
Ms. Ingabire, a Hutu, returned to Rwanda from exile in 2010 to run against Mr. Kagame. She was arrested, barred from taking part in the election and later imprisoned on charges of conspiracy and terrorism. Released in 2018, when Mr. Kagame pardoned her, Ms. Ingabire cannot travel abroad and is barred from standing in this election. “I agree with those who say Rwanda needed a strongman ruler after the genocide, ” she said. “But today, after 30 years, we need strong institutions more than we need strong men.”
Mr. Kagame burst into power in July 1994, sweeping into Kigali at the head of a Tutsi-dominated rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which ousted the Hutu extremists who orchestrated the genocide.
He has had a reputation for spending aid wisely and promoting forward-looking economic policies. Although former aides have accused him of manipulating official statistics, Rwanda’s trajectory is impressive: Average life expectancy rose to 66 years from 40 years between 1994 and 2021, the United Nations says.
One of Mr. Kagame’s first acts was to publicly erase the divisions that had fueled the genocide. He banned the terms Hutu and Tutsi from identity cards and effectively criminalized public discussion of ethnicity. “We are all Rwandan” became the national motto. But in reality, ethnicity continued to suffuse nearly every aspect of life. “Everyone knows who is who,” said Joseph Sebarenzi, a Tutsi who served as the president of Parliament until 2000, when he fled into exile.
A survey published last year by Filip Reyntjens, a Belgian professor and outspoken Kagame critic, found that 82 percent of 199 top government positions were held by ethnic Tutsi — and nearly 100 percent in Mr. Kagame’s office. American diplomats reached a similar conclusion in 2008.
“Anyone not familiar with Rwanda might think that everything is fine,” Mr. Sebarenzi said. “People work together, they go to church together, they do business together. That is good. But under the carpet, those ethnic divisions are still there.”
Ethnic divisions persist under an iron-fisted leader.