By David Himbara
As soon as Paul Kagame’s Transform Africa Summit in Kigali ended on May 8, 2018, the Rwandan president jumped on his Gulfstream luxury jet to New York City, USA. From there, Kagame flew to California to attend his son’s graduation on May 12, 2018.
Before he briefly returned to Rwanda to host the Transform Africa Summit, Kagame itinerary included his visit to Congo Brazzaville on April 29, 2018. Before that, Kagame had been in London, UK, April 17–20, 2018. From London, Kagame went Chicago, the USA on April 23, 2018. And then headed for New York, the USA on April 24, 2018. In other words, Kagame was mostly overseas in April and May.
In Chicago and New York, Kagame had gone to attend a film premiere in which he is the star. Titled Rwanda: The Royal Tour, the movie is basically about Kagame and how he single-handedly rebuilt Rwanda.
Meanwhile in Rwanda, total disaster…
While Kagame was jetting around Britain and the United States, Rwanda was a disaster zone. Grief and horror as landslide victims are buried across Rwanda in unknown numbers. The most recent catastrophe was the devastation of the Rwanda-Uganda-Kenya highway that transports transit goods to and from the seaport of Mombasa, Kenya. The landslides destroyed this key infrastructure which is now closed since May 14, 2018.
Kagame has not visited a single disaster area since the disaster struck Rwanda
Rwanda is devastated. Rwandans are on their own — their dictator leader lives in his luxury jet cruising between Western capitals. There is no single case whereby Kagame visited families and communities to console flood victims. These images show the suffering of the people of Rwanda.
What a world we live in. While a nation faces one of its worst natural disasters in its history, the head of state — Paul Kagame — attends his son’s graduation overseas. His regime suppresses the numbers of Rwandans who died — the regime acknowledges only 200 lost lives. The exact number of the thousands displaced remains hidden. Rwandans themselves are showing the determination and courage to fend for themselves. Make no mistake, however. The current disaster illustrates the perils of a morally bankrupt president who doesn’t give a damn about the calamities befallen on the country he supposedly leads. Slowly but steadily, more and more Rwandans realize that their country is led by an absentee dictator.
