By David Himbara
Rwanda is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the World Bank, Rwanda’s per capita income is US$702.8 – which translates into US$58 per month or US$1.95 a day. In other words, most Rwandans are dirt poor, barely earning above the international poverty line which is US$1.90 a day.
Most Rwandans eke a living on subsistence farming and in the informal sector in urban slums. General Paul Kagame, aka The Rwandan gangster, used to lie that he will transform Rwanda into a middle class country by 2020 – he now lies that he will achieve this by 2035.
Meanwhile, the Rwandan gangster who rules Rwanda with an iron fist lives like a king. Look at his toys:
The gangster’s Gulfstream jet costs no less than US$65 million.
His four Range Rover Sentinel cars cost US$500,000.00 a piece for a total of US$2 million.
Rwanda is the second most densely populated country in the world, after South Korea, which has about 490 people per square kilometre. Rwanda has 416 people per square kilometre. Back in 2007, Kagame forced all his military generals to give back the land they had grabbed after genocide in 1994. No one was allowed to retain more than 25 hectares as the ruling party newspaper, the New Times, explained:
“It was agreed that nobody should have more than 25 hectares to help allocate land for the landless. A joint commission of the military and police is working with officials from the Eastern Province to try and redistribute land in areas where residents have complained about huge chunks of land owned by top leaders including military and police officers.”
The only exception was Kagame the gangster. He kept the 43 hectare farm at Lake Muhazi by claiming as follows:
“I did not buy it but applied for it and duly got it. I formally applied to Minagri requesting for that land and they granted it to me! I’m one of the few people with a land title.”
For the Rwandan gangster, “development” is big buildings such the Kigali Convention Centre that cost US$300 million.
All I can say, even the rain eventually stops. Like all dictators, the Rwandan gangster will fall sooner or later. Four African dictators just fell in the past six months – in Angola, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia. Gangster Jacob Zuma has also fallen. It is a matter of time for Rwanda’s gangster to bite the dust.
