By David Himbara
The first blunder was to photograph the two heads of state next to the Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen Rwanda. We learnt that Volkswagen CEO is Serge Kamuhinda who previously worked in General Paul Kagame’s office. The second blunder was to photograph the inside of Volkswagen’s assembly plant. There is no assembly line. This is a glorified garage.
General Paul Kagame’s tour of the Volkswagen assembly line in Kigali with the visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu demonstrated the reverse of the intended purpose. The intention was to show off that Volkswagen manufactures cars in Rwanda, including the $40,000 SUV Teramont. Thanks to Kagame PR machine, we got to see the inside of the so-called assembly plant since it was launched in 2018. First, photographed next to the two heads of state was the CEO of Volkswagen, who is Serge Kamuhinda. Kamuhinda was previously deputy head of the Strategy and Policy Unit in Kagame’s office. It would take a miracle to equip a government bureaucrat with the skillsets required to run a genuine automobile assembly plant. Then, the Kagame PR machine showed us the inside of Volkswagen assembly plant. The plant does not have an assembly line.
This is a glorified garage that installs windscreens, side mirrors, lights and tires on vehicles that are shipped to Rwanda already assembled. In reality, Volkswagen Rwanda is not in the business of making cars.
Volkswagen Rwanda is in the rental business with 21 vehicles on the road, as of June 2019. Stay tuned.
