Kagame’s One Laptop Per Child Is Embarrassing

By David Himbara

Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, has been dubbed the “digital president”. Among the reasons cited for so naming is the one laptop per child. On October 2, 2008, Kagame launched one laptop per child with the following words:

”We are going to turn the dream of all our children owning computers into reality.”

The Auditor General of Rwanda has issued the following assessment:

  1. 274,127 laptops worth US$55,373,654 (equivalent to Frw 47,621,342,440) have been distributed to primary schools between 2008 and 30 June 2017.
  2. 54,065 laptops worth US$11,475,700 (equivalent to Frw 10,241,445,444) have been distributed to secondary schools from 2015 to 30 June 2017.

Kagame’s one laptop per child is embarrassing

The digital president should be ashamed of himself. Of the 2.5 million primary school pupils in Rwanda, only 274,127 have access to laptop computers. In other words, since Kagame launched the one laptop per child in 2008, only ten percent of Rwandan primary school children have acquired laptop computers. So much for the digital president.