Poor communication, Aggression, Frustration, attitude and intimidation proved to seize kagame’s interaction with the residents of Ngororero, however when he found this innocent lady who praised him and donated  a carrier bag to  him, he stared at her for hours.

On President Kagame’s recent visit to Ngororero on the 15/02/2012, he appeared to have had no purpose due to his communication with the residents he had gone to visit.

This has been broadcasted on the president’s website under the podcast titled “President Kagame visits Ngororero District- Western Province, 15 February 2012”. The reason of the visit was ordinarily intended to be an interactive question-answer session where the residents could get the much longer chances of asking their burning questions to the head of their country.

After the introduction and the jubilation of the local leaders, Kagame asked the residents of the western province to ask whatever question they had.

It was evident in Kagame’s tone of speech that he welcomed praising speeches from the residents while intimidating and challenging residents who had critical issues that he was meant to solve for them. This leaves me with the initial question: why did he visit them in the first place?

President Kagame is a bully who takes pride in challenging individuals who he is meant to lead. At some point during this session, he is heard interrupting the poor chap who asks a question by making them to repeat their names and making them repeat their exact villages, districts and cells just to distract their attention.

The master of ceremony is throughout the podcast heard shouting to individuals to get straight to the point or question hence President Kagame is heard interrupting the individuals to rush to the actual point still trying to distract each question he suspects to be sensitive to his leadership.

It is vital to point out that most of the questions the residents of Ngororero had were mostly to do with land disputes, pension, unpaid wages and the infamous microfinance which main culprit is Mrs Jannette Kagame wife to the president himself. It is said that Mrs Jannette Kagame started the micro-finance which robbed many poor residents in Rwanda of their plots of land for the promised cash Loans.

The microfinance issues were best suited to be answered by Kagame himself but he kept on interrupting who ever raised this issue before they start by shouting that he had already heard the question before one even finishes to ask it. He is heard several times making these individuals to repeat their names and where they live, implying that he was more concerned about whom they were and exactly where they lived. This is very intimidating to the poor villagers considering the character of president Kagame.

On the other hand Kagame is heard entertaining individual who praises him or his leadership. At some point a lady is given an extra amount of time to praise sing to Kagame and narrating how she missed his previous visit due to ill health. When two more individuals praised Kagame taking the time slot of the numerous who had travelled distant journeys for the rare chance, Kagame at this time is heard happy and laughing out loud in response to the praises. This reminds me watching the late General Iddi Amin’s speeches former dictator of Uganda. It is funny how history repeats itself!

Normally the point of allowing people to ask questions is for them to be answered. In any civil society, communication is a two way interchange of messages and all parties involved should mutually be respectable.

President Kagame’s anxiety of answering questions from any person on this planet stems to the fact that he is always pre-emptive and suspicious of any audience he faces. This is a common behaviour to every dictator.

This behaviour has caused president Kagame hostility between him and the media. There are a few reasons that causes this anxiety, Kagame has repeatedly shown weaknesses in answering even the simplest question without being sly.

He has no proper language, his English is poor and sometime does not understand the questions asked by media and hence ending up jumbling on answers.

What Mr Kagame does not know is that, Regardless of whether you’re talking about business, politics, sports or the military, the best leaders are first-rate communicators. Their values are clear and solid, and what they say promotes those values. Their teams admire them and follow their lead. Likewise, if you want your company to reach new benchmarks of achievement, you must master the art of clear communication.

First, you must realize and accept that clear communication is always a two-way process. It’s not enough to speak clearly; you have to make sure you’re being heard and understood. Mr Kagame lacks communication skills. That’s why he cannot handle even those who accepted his lies that he won the elections in 2010.

Rwema Francis, Kigali

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