The African Investment Summit held at Savoy Hotel Yesterday on the 20th October 2014 was meant to discuss issues of development and areas of investment in Africa. This summit was attended by President Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Prime Minister of Tanzania and the Ghana President John Dramani Mahama.But the centre of attention was on president Kagame of Rwanda who attracted both supporters and protesters.

The Rwandan Embassy (High Commission) in London had to ferry buses of the so called Kagame supporters from Holland, Belgium, and France.  The price of ferrying all these people will be foot by the Rwandan Tax Payers or AGACIRO FUND.  But do all these people really support Kagame or are mercenaries for money? Does this mean that if any other politician with a heavy pocket wants to hire them will not do so?  This is the Kind of support president Kagame thinks he has, the same support President Buyoya of Burundi had in 1993 when delusionary believed he had.

Indeed, he lost the election to President Mechor Ndadaye who was later murdered Two Decades ago. The Rwandan president was not amused by the BBC Documentary which exposed the lies of President Kagame and his RPF.  The one story told by Kagame and believed by the World is different from the correct line of the struggle that brought that him to power almost 20 years ago.

Is Kagame the Messiah of Rwanda as he wants the World to believe?  Kagame is now the only president in the world that attracts crowds of protests wherever he goes and the host country will incur extra costs for hosting him in their country. The Police is increased almost twice the normal police deployment and the intelligence for monitoring his boys for assassinations or poisoning.  This time around some of his security officers in the advance party have been caught with offensive weapons like Bayonets and eventually 6 people were arrested.

The whole World should wake up to the warts-and-all reality of the Rwandan president. When will Britain acknowledge that its development darling may have feet of clay? A “visionary leader,” said Tony Blair; “one of the greatest leaders of our time,” echoed Bill Clinton. Such hero worship is usually reserved for South Africa’s late Nelson Mandela. But Blair and Clinton were describing the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. This is a disgrace and shame to the British people who witnessed tow days of protest and egg throwing to the man many believe to be a serial killer.

The continued giving president Kagame a red carpet by UK government is double standard; it stains the UK pride, reputations and ability to judge character, not to mention hundreds of millions of pounds in aid, on Kagame’s powers of post-genocide healing and reconciliation matching those of Mandela after apartheid.

The UK Government should instead warn President Kagame that he could face criminal prosecution for continued killings in his own country and other crimes against humanity committed in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a shame that President Kagame could come here in the world’s heart of democracy and sit with other heads of state freely discussing development when he has denied the basics and fundamentals of development to his own people.

The Rwandan people are also paying a heavy price for the crimes of their President. In countering his unpopularity, Kagame is spending huge sums of money on trips abroad almost every month.  He hires expensive jets from his own Company and the bill is sent to the Rwandan Tax Payers.  This implies that the budget of Education will be slashed, Health Ministry will not have enough money and the peasants will be forced to dig deep into their pockets.  The University Students will not get their bursaries, the government employees will be forced to pay contributions in the AGACIRO FUND, Medical Insurance will be forced to the peasants to sell their chickens and the exorbitant taxes will be imposed to business community.

I think with the current human rights abuses in Rwanda, killing of innocent people and throwing them in River Akagera ending up in Lake Rweru in Burundi, UK being the country’s biggest bilateral donor, with an average of £83m a year should review its relationship with President Kagame.

“When Clare Short was secretary of state, she was Kagame’s number-one fan,” says Carina Tertsakian, Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher on Rwanda. “In her eyes, he could do no wrong. We’re still living with the legacy of that now. Tony Blair was also taken in.”

Blair was, and remains, one of Kagame’s most ardent cheer leaders, and an unpaid adviser. His charity, the Africa Governance Initiative, places young interns in Rwandan government offices. He told the Guardian: “I’m a believer in, and a supporter of, Paul Kagame. I don’t ignore all those criticisms, having said that. But I do think you’ve got to recognise that Rwanda is an immensely special case because of the genocide.

“Secondly, you can’t argue with the fact that Rwanda has gone on a remarkable path of development. Every time I visit Kigali and the surrounding areas, you can just see the changes being made in the country.”

David Cameron appears almost equally enamoured, and the former development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, when he visited Rwanda during his tenure, he said he had delivered “frank messages” to both Rwanda and Congo on the instability and violence that was being sponsored by Kagame . The West and UK in particular should stop applying selective vision to the sins of leaders such as Mugabe or late Idi Amin both isolated by London. The cost will be high both in terms of human and economic loss if London and Washington continue to ignore the tears of Rwandans and Congolese.

 

Joseph Ruhumuriza

Senior Researcher Great Lakes Human Rights Link.

http://www.greatlakeshumanrightslink.com/counting-the-cost-kagame-is-now-a-liability-to-the-world/