By David Himbara
General Paul Kagame’s regime announced that from August 9, 2021, the price of the Covid-19 rapid test will drop to RWF5,000 or US$5. With an average family size of 4.5 people, a Rwandan household would need US$22.5 for Covid19 testing. This is a country in which 92 percent of the population lives on less than US$5.50 a day. The overwhelming majority of Rwandans are, therefore, still priced out of Covid19 testing.
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General Paul Kagame has been loudly accusing the West of endangering African lives by hoarding Covid19 vaccines. Yet, Kagame’s cruelty against the people of Rwanda is of the worst kind – the cost of Covid19 testing is more than what most Rwandans earn in a day. Shamelessly, his regime announced on Twitter that from August 9, 2021, the price of a rapid diagnostic test for Covid-19 will drop to RWF5,000.
RWF5,000 translates into US$5. This is simply too high and too prohibitive for a poor country like Rwanda. With an average family size of 4.5 people, a Rwandan household must come up with US$22.5 for Covid19 testing. Somebody should remind Kagame how poor Rwanda is. Rwanda’s poverty headcount ratio at $5.50 a day is 92 percent. Put differently, only 8 percent of Rwandans are not poor, per the international poverty line which defines poverty as the percentage of the population living on less than of US$5.50 a day. Evidently, Kagame does not know the country he rules with an iron fist. Stay tuned.