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Rwanda 20 Years After Genocide, Making Strides

Rwanda 20 Years After Genocide, Making Strides

Editor’s note: In part one of a series on “Rwanda 20 Years After Genocide,” AFKInsider examines the leadership style of President Paul Kagame.

Twenty years ago, a plane was shot down carrying then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, killing both leaders.

This set off 100 days of targeted violence intended to wipe out an ethnic group on a scale unseen since World War II. In Rwanda, the assassination caused long-held ethnic tensions to boil over between the Hutus — approximately 85 percent of the country’s population –and the Tutsi’s — about 14 percent, and long favored by the Belgian colonial rulers.

Over three months, close to 800,000 Rwandans — mainly Tutsis but also sympathetic Hutus — were killed. The violence stopped when a Tutsi-led rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, took Kigali.

For the past 20 years the Rwandan Patriotic Front has transitioned from a rebel military group into the country’s dominant political party. Under the leadership of President Paul Kagame, himself a former soldier and Patriotic Front leader, the Rwandan economy has risen from the ashes of the genocide but ethnic tensions still simmer and allegations of a totalitarian government abound.

In office since 2000, Kagame has been successful in cultivating business and personal relationships with prominent Westerners. These relationships have led to a number of unique foreign direct investment opportunities in the country.

One classic example of Kagame’s relationship-driven foreign investment campaign is a visit to Rwanda by Jim Sinegal, co-founder and former CEO of Costco. Kagame invited Sinegal to the East African country and the two developed a friendship. A members-only warehouse club based in the U.S., Costco now buys almost a quarter of Rwanda’s coffee crop. When Kagame visited the U.S., Sinegal threw him a party where he met Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks. Starbucks then became the second-largest purchaser of Rwandan coffee.

Similar stories can be told regarding a number of investments in the country. Kagame counts among his international supporters Bill Clinton (who once called Kagame one of the greatest leaders of our time), Tony Blair (who has referred to Kagame as a visionary leader) and Bill Gates.

In addition to Kagame’s successful relationships, Rwanda has worked to become a tech hub for East Africa. Kagame’s goals have been described by the Washington Post. He said he wants to create a regional Silicon Valley with a new generation of tech-savvy Rwandans who will lead the country into a service-based economy of the future.

It may be ambitious, but the country has had remarkable success. Since 2000, when Kagame came to power and the government instituted its Vision 2020 economic plan, the country has played the long game, ensuring that the current generation will be prepared for such a transition. Educational expenditures make up more than 15 percent of total government spending for 2013-2014. This compares with less than 4 percent of the United States budget spent on education or less than 6 percent in the United Kingdom in the same period. This has resulted in school enrollment rates about 30 percent higher than other sub-Saharan countries.

There is evidence that Rwanda’s transition and focus on the future are paying off. Earlier this month Forbes reported that Swedish tech giant Millicom will set up Think — a tech incubator — in Rwanda. According to the Washington Post, the Rwandan government signed a deal in 2013 with a South Korean firm to provide high-speed Internet to 95 percent of Rwandans within three years. Those who live in rural areas can access free Internet in centers or on buses.

All the country’s reforms lead to Kagame. He’s lauded for rooting out corruption and building one of the most business friendly and economically promising countries in sub-Saharan Africa out of the ruins of one of mankind’s greatest tragedies.

But his detractors are finding increasingly fertile ground for their criticisms. While the country’s economy thrusts forward and transitions from subsistence farming to tech hub, complaints of Kagame’s dictatorial leadership are getting louder.

“I’m a believer in, and a supporter of, Paul Kagame. I don’t ignore all those criticisms,” Blair said in an interview with the Guardian. “…but I do think you’ve got to recognize that Rwanda is an immensely special case because of the genocide.”

Western failure to stop the genocide and the collective guilt that still echoes in foreign capitals has been a potent tool for Kagame to deflect criticism of his governance style. However, while this may be an immensely special case and it may give Kagame wide leeway in his actions, the leeway is running out in the minds of foreign donors and supporters.

In contrast to Rwanda’s economic successes, its failures in governance will be addressed in part two of this AFKInsider series, “Rwanda 20 Years After Genocide.”

Andrew Friedman is a human rights attorney and consultant who works and writes on legal reform and constitutional law with an emphasis on Africa. He can be reached via email at afriedm2@gmail.com or via twitter @AndrewBFriedman.