
By David Himbara
Since 2019 began five months ago, General Paul Kagame convened and attended cabinet meetings only twice — on January 28, 2019, and March 3, 2019. Kagame did not attend the March 26, 2019 cabinet session which was merely to approve the Budget Framework Paper for the 2019/2020.
Which begs two questions: First, what has Kagame done in the past five months? Second, how does he run Rwanda if he convened cabinet only two times in nearly half a year?
Kagame has been mostly conferencing and having fun outside Rwanda

Kagame has attended 27 meetings/events abroad in the past five months as follows:
- Attending his daughter’s graduation at Columbia University | New York, USA 19 May 2019.
- Meeting with Young Presidents’ Organization Paris Chapter | Paris, France, 17 May 2019.
- Attending VivaTech2019 | Paris, France, 17 May 2019.
- Attending 22nd Milken Institute Global Conference | Los Angeles, USA, 30 April 2019.
- Attending World Economic Forum Center for 4th Industrial Revolution Business Roundtable | San Francisco, USA, 29 April 2019.
- Attending Broadband Commission meeting for Sustainable Development | San Francisco, USA, 29 April 2019.
- Watching Basketball |Oakland, USA, 29 April 2019.
- Visiting Tarana Wireless Offices | San Francisco, USA, 28 April 2019.
- Attending AU Troika Summit on Libya and Sudan | Cairo, Egypt, 23 April 2019.
- Visiting Saddleback Church | California, USA, 14 April 2019.
- Attending UN reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda |United Nations Headquarters | New York, 12 April 2019.
- Attending NBA Board of Governors Dinner | New York, USA, 11 April 2019.
- Attending swearing-in of President Macky Sall of Senegal | Dakar, 2 April 2019.
- Working Visit to Angola | Luanda, 21 March 2019.
- Working visit to Tanzania | Dar es Salaam, 8 March 2019.
- Attending Young Presidents’ Organization | Cape Town, South Africa, 5–6 March 2019.
- Attending Fespaco 2019 | Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2 March 2019.
- Meeting with Business Leaders hosted by Hiinga | Charlotte USA, 18 February 2019.
- Attending All-Stars Baseball | Charlotte USA, 17-18 February 2019.
- Attending Munich Security Conference | Munich, Germany, 14 February 2019.
- Attending Milken Middle East and North Africa Summit | Abu Dhabi, 13 February 2019.
- Attending World Government Summit | Dubai, 13 February 2019.
- Attending Ordinary Session of the African Union | Addis Ababa, 11 February 2019.
- Attending the 20th Ordinary Summit of the East African Community Heads of State | Arusha, 1 February 2019.
- Attending the World Economic Forum | Davis, 22–24 January 2019.
- Attending High Level Consultation Meeting of Heads of State on the Situation in DRC | Addis Ababa, 17 January 2019.
- Official visit to Japan | Tokyo, 8 January 2019.
Kagame runs Rwanda from overseas via his cellphone

Here is a ruler who has convened his so-called cabinet only twice in five months while attending 27 meetings/events overseas. These include three basketball events — two games and a board meeting — and the daughter’s graduation. Kagame averaged 5.4 overseas meetings/events a month. He evidently runs Rwanda via his cellphone. Through the phone he sends orders that terrifies, overpowers, and manipulates especially his military to keep an eye on things, while self-aggrandizing overseas as a man who transformed Rwanda into an economic lion. There can be no worse absentee totalitarian ruler than this.