Three lessons from President Kagame’s recent upcountry tour

Two weeks ago, much like he has done many times before, President Paul Kagame embarked on one of his citizen outreach tours, this time around in Nyabihu district in the Western Province, to engage with ordinary citizens. As noted above, President Kagame’s countrywide citizen engagement tours are nothing new. Indeed, his determination and drive to travel in and around the country listening to ordinary people has earned him praise from commentators who regard his initiative as part of a strategy to make government officials more accountable to citizens. Incidentally, although much has been discussed about many such tours in the past, a lot has been said about the latest episode. Accordingly, when the President rolled up his sleeves to address Nyabihu residents and those far beyond, I noted down three important observations; We are all subject to accountability: Few can dispute the enormous benefits that come with a government which is accountable to the people at all times. In fact, it has been well documented that openness and transparency can save money, accelerate development, strengthen people’s trust in government and encourage greater public participation in decision-making at all levels. At Rambura Secondary School where the gathering was held, government officials particularly ministers, were put through their paces to explain publicly some of the shortcomings directly tied to their ministries respectively. In particular, Dr Agnes Kalibata, Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources, who is in charge of advancing the sustainable development of a modern, efficient and competitive agricultural sector, was put to task by the President to explain why several projects, including a milk plant, had been delayed for no good reason. Stanislas Kamanzi, the Minister for Natural Resources, was also asked to explain why some residents of Nyabihu were yet to be compensated for having been relocated to give way to certain development projects. The interesting observation here was that regardless of one’s seniority in government, everyone was subject to a high level of openness and transparency when dealing with citizen’s grievances. Devt is a collective responsibility: Often in Africa and far afield, many people wrongly expect government to spearhead the development process without their full participation. They believe that in many ways, the role of government is to lift them out of poverty by providing employment opportunities, education, healthcare and infrastructure, among many other services, with little or no effort from them. True, the government has a major role to play, but what President Kagame reminded Rwandans that day was that development is a collective effort which requires a collective responsibility. In fact, he used this opportunity to call upon all concerned parties to ensure that delays to development projects are minimised and that government officials must take overall responsibility in the delivery of these projects. He insisted that Rwandans cannot afford to move at a snail’s pace and should instead be doubling their efforts to elevate themselves out of poverty. To this end, I was encouraged to learn that residents of Nyabihu district had requested relevant authorities to establish a vocational training school to facilitate them with skills required to become agribusiness entrepreneurs, modern farmers and technicians alike. Security is paramount; Much has been written about the part when the President spoke about national security. In the United States, for example, in reaction to the alleged disappearance of some terror suspects, Lara Santoro and Susan Thomson wrote in The New York Times on June 17, that Rwanda’s bilateral donors like the United States should “make every penny conditional on receiving an accounting of every person who has been detained, apprehended or otherwise disappeared, and insist on confirmation by local and international monitoring groups.” What is startling about this article, however, is that it fails to mention victims of grenade attacks which have devastated many families in Kigali and other places. Instead, the article cites Human Rights Watch’s view of suspects as “people suspected of being critical of the government”. Rewind back some 14 days ago, here, the President made one thing clear; he reiterated that as President and ultimately Commander-in-Chief, his main responsibility is to ensure that every Rwandan resident duly enjoys the basic right to genuine security. Accordingly, President Kagame insisted that no Rwandan should be intimidated by terrorist groups who seek to destabilise the Rwandan recovery. President Kagame recapped that security of the nation was crucial in the quest to achieve development targets and that every citizen has a role to play in order to maintain the necessary security. Compellingly, the President also warned that Rwanda is more than capable of dealing with any threats should they occur. On balance and in my humble opinion, there is one observation which captivated me the most – I was intrigued by the level of openness and transparency during Q&A. With that, I find that sceptics who argue that there is little or no freedom of speech in Rwanda, ignore this very important aspect of a President who travels countrywide to reach out to and interact with ordinary citizens about their miniature and grand problems – whilst demanding relevant government officials, including ministers, to offer full explanation and, if necessary, an immediate solution to the problems raised. And, of course, all of this is orchestrated in full view of an ordinary citizen. The writer is a UK Parliamentary Intern and holds a Master of Science in Public Service Policy. Twitter: @Jsabex

Opinions

Three lessons from President Kagame’s recent upcountry tour