Paul Kagame facts for kids

"Kagame" redirects here. For other uses, see Kagame (surname).

Quick facts for kids Paul Kagame
Kagame in 2024

4th President of Rwanda
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 April 2000
Prime Minister	Bernard Makuza Pierre Habumuremyi Anastase Murekezi Édouard Ngirente
Preceded by	Pasteur Bizimungu
16th Commonwealth Chair-in-Office
In office 24 June 2022 – 25 October 2024
Preceded by	Boris Johnson
Succeeded by	Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa
16th Chairperson of the African Union
In office 28 January 2018 – 10 February 2019
Preceded by	Alpha Condé
Succeeded by	Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Vice President of Rwanda
In office 19 July 1994 – 22 April 2000
President	Pasteur Bizimungu
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Minister of Defence
In office 19 July 1994 – 22 April 2000
President	Pasteur Bizimungu
Preceded by	Augustin Bizimana
Succeeded by	Emmanuel Habyarimana

Personal details
Born	(1957-10-23) 23 October 1957 (age 67) Tambwe, Gitarama Province, Ruanda-Urundi (now Nyarutovu, Rwanda)
Political party	Rwandan Patriotic Front
Spouse	Jeannette Nyiramongi (m. 1989)
Children	4
Alma mater	Command and General Staff College
Military service
Allegiance	National Resistance Army (1979–1990) Rwandan Patriotic Front (since 1990) Rwanda (since 1994)
Years of service	1979–2000
Battles/wars	Ugandan Bush War War in Uganda (1986–1994) Rwandan Civil War
a. ^ Acting: 24 March – 22 April 2000

Paul Kagame ( kə-GAH-may; born 23 October 1957) is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who has been the President of Rwanda since 2000.

Early life
Career
- Presidency
  - Economy
  - Education and health
Personal life
Honours
Images for kids
See also

Early life

Kagame was born on 23 October 1957, the youngest of six children, in Tambwe, Ruanda-Urundi, a village located in what is now the Southern Province of Rwanda. His father, Deogratias Rutagambwa, was a member of the Tutsi ethnic group, from which the royal family had been derived since the 18th century or earlier. A member of the Bega clan, Deogratias Rutagambwa had family ties to King Mutara III, but he pursued an independent business career rather than maintain a close connection to the royal court. Kagame's mother, Asteria Bisinda, descended from the family of the last Rwandan queen, Rosalie Gicanda, that is from the Hebera branch of the royal Nyiginya clan.

At the time of Kagame's birth, Rwanda was a United Nations Trust Territory which had been ruled, in various forms, by Belgium since 1916 under a mandate to oversee eventual independence. Rwandans were made up of three distinct groups: the minority Tutsi were the traditional ruling class, and the Belgian colonialists had long promoted Tutsi supremacy, while the majority Hutu were agriculturalists. The third group, the Twa, were a forest-dwelling pygmy people descended from Rwanda's earliest inhabitants, who formed less than 1% of the population.

Tensions between Tutsi and Hutu had been escalating during the 1950s, and culminated in the 1959 Rwandan Revolution. Hutu activists began killing Tutsi, forcing more than 100,000 Tutsis to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. Kagame's family abandoned their home and lived for two years in the far northeast of Rwanda and eventually crossing the border into Uganda. They moved gradually north, and settled in the Nshungerezi refugee camp in the Toro sub-region in 1962. It was around this time that Kagame first met Fred Rwigyema, the future leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

Kagame began his primary education in a school near the refugee camp, where he and other Rwandan refugees learned how to speak English and began to integrate into Ugandan culture. At the age of nine, he moved to the respected Rwengoro Primary School, around 16 kilometres (10 mi) away. He subsequently attended Ntare School, one of the best schools in Uganda, which was also the alma mater of future Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. According to Kagame, the death of his father in the early-1970s, and the departure of Rwigyema to an unknown location, led to a decline in his academic performance and an increased tendency to fight those who belittled the Rwandan population. He was eventually suspended from Ntare and completed his studies at Old Kampala Secondary School.

After completing his education, Kagame made two visits to Rwanda, in 1977 and 1978. He was initially hosted by family members of his former classmates, but upon arrival in Kigali; he made contact with members of his own family. He kept a low profile on these visits, believing that his status as a well-connected Tutsi exile could lead to arrest. On his second visit, he entered the country through Zaire rather than Uganda to avoid suspicion. Kagame used his time in Rwanda to explore the country, familiarise himself with the political and social situation, and make connections that would prove useful to him in his later activities.

Career

In the 1980s, Kagame fought in Yoweri Museveni's rebel army, becoming a senior Ugandan army officer after many military victories led Museveni to the Ugandan presidency. Kagame joined the RPF, taking control of the group when previous leader Fred Rwigyema died on the second day of the 1990 invasion. By 1993, the RPF controlled significant territory in Rwanda and a ceasefire was negotiated. The assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana set off the genocide. Kagame resumed the civil war and ended the genocide with a military victory.

During his vice presidency, Kagame controlled the national army and was responsible for maintaining the government's power, while other officials began rebuilding the country.

Presidency

In the late 1990s, Kagame began actively planning methods to achieve national development. He launched a national consultation process and also sought the advice of experts from emerging nations including China, Singapore and Thailand. Following these consultations, and shortly after assuming the presidency, Kagame launched an ambitious programme of national development called Vision 2020. The major purposes of the programme were to unite the Rwandan people and to transform Rwanda from a highly impoverished into a middle income country. The programme consists of a list of goals which the government aimed to achieve before the year 2020. These include reconstruction, infrastructure and transport improvements, good governance, improving agriculture production, private sector development, and health and education improvements.

In 2011, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) issued a report indicating the progress of the Vision 2020 goals. The report examined the stated goals of the programme and rated each one with a status of "on-track", "on-watch" or "off-track". Of 44 goals, it found that 66% were on-track, 11% were on-watch, and 22% were off-track. The major areas identified as off-track were population, poverty and the environment. By 2012, MINECOFIN's review found that 26% of Vision 2020's original indicators had already been achieved. While also highlighting key areas for improvement, the review made several upward revisions, including revising the GDP per capita target from $900 to $1,240. In the same year, an independent review of the strategy carried out by academics based in Belgium rated progress as "quite encouraging", mentioning development in the education and health sectors, as well as Kagame's fostering of a favourable business environment. The review also raised concerns about the policy of "maximum growth at any cost", suggesting that this was leading to a situation in which the rich prospered while the rural poor saw little benefit.

Upon completion of the programme in December 2020, Kagame announced Vision 2050, remarking that "Vision 2020 was about what we had to do in order to survive and regain our dignity. But Vision 2050 has to be about the future we choose, because we can, and because we deserve it." Vision 2050 focuses around the two main pillars of Economic Growth and Prosperity and High Quality of Life and Standards of Life for Rwandans. Vision 2050 is the programmatic articulation of Kagame's ambition for Rwanda to become an upper-middle income country by 2035, and a high-income country by 2050.

Economy

Luxurious Kigali under Kagame

Rwanda's economy has grown rapidly under Kagame's presidency, with per-capita gross domestic product (purchasing power parity) estimated at $2,214 in 2020, compared with $631 in 2000. Annual growth between 2000 and 2020 averaged 7% per year. Kagame's economic policy is based on liberalising the economy, reducing red tape for businesses, and transforming the country from an agricultural to a knowledge-based economy. Kagame has stated that he believes Rwanda can emulate the economic development of Singapore since 1960. Kagame, as set out in the national Vision 2050 Policy, believes that Rwanda can become an upper-middle income country by 2035, and a high-income country by 2050.

Kagame's economic policy has been praised by many foreign donors and investors, including Bill Clinton and Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz. The country is also recognized internationally for its effective institutions and low levels of corruption.

Rwanda has also illegally exploited Congolese minerals, which is an important aspect of the success of Rwanda's economy. Political economy researcher Stefaan Marysse estimated that in 1999, 6.1% of Rwanda's GDP came from illegal resource extraction in the DRC. In 2013, foreign aid made up over 20 percent of GDP and nearly half of the budget. Economic growth has disproportionally accrued to elites in the capital while rural areas lag behind. Although the government officially has a policy of privatization, in practice it has increased state control of the economy using corporations with strong ties to the state and the ruling party.

Rwanda is a country of few natural resources, and the economy is heavily dependent on subsistence agriculture, with an estimated 75% of the working population engaged in farming. Under Kagame's presidency, the service sector has grown strongly. It makes up approximately half of the country's GDP and is the second largest employer after agriculture. Key tertiary contributors include banking and finance, wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants, transport, storage, communication, insurance, real estate, business services, and public administration, including education and health. Information and communications technology (ICT) is a Vision 2020 priority, with a goal of transforming Rwanda into an ICT hub for Africa. To this end, the government has completed a 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) fibre-optic telecommunications network, intended to provide broadband services and facilitate electronic commerce. Tourism is one of the fastest-growing economic resources and became the country's leading foreign exchange earner in 2011.

Rwanda ranks highly in several categories of the World Bank's ease of doing business index. In 2005, after the country was ranked 158th on the Ease of Doing Business Index, Kagame set up a special unit to analyze the economy and provide solutions to easing business. As a result, the country topped the list of reformers in 2009. In 2012, the country's overall ease of doing business index ranking was 52nd out of 185 countries worldwide, and third out of 46 in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was eighth on the 2012 rankings for ease of starting a business; the Rwanda Development Board asserts that a business can be authorised and registered in 24 hours. The business environment and economy also benefit from relatively low corruption in the country; in 2010, Transparency International ranked Rwanda as the eighth cleanest out of 47 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and sixty-sixth cleanest out of 178 in the world.

Education and health

Kagame has made education for youth in Rwanda a high priority for his administration, allocating 17% of the annual budget to the sector. The Rwandan government provides free education in state-run schools for twelve years: six years in primary and six in secondary school. The final three years of free education were introduced in 2012 following a pledge by Kagame during his 2010 re-election campaign. Kagame credits his government with improvements in the tertiary education sector; the number of universities has risen from 1 in 1994 to 29 in 2010, and the tertiary gross enrollment ratio increased from 4% in 2008 to 7% in 2011. From 1994 until 2009, secondary education was offered in either French or English; since 2009, due to the country's increasing ties with the East African Community and the Commonwealth of Nations, English has been the sole language of instruction in public schools from primary school grade 4 onward. The country's literacy rate, defined as those aged 15 or over who can read and write, was 71% in 2009, up from 58% in 1991 and 38% in 1978.

Rwanda's health profile is dominated by communicable diseases, including malaria, pneumonia, and HIV/AIDS. Prevalence and mortality rates have sharply declined in the past decade but the short supply or unavailability of certain medicines continues to challenge disease management. Kagame's government is seeking to improve this situation as one of the Vision 2020 priorities. It has increased funding, with the health budget up from 3.2% of national expenditure in 1996 to 9.7% in 2008. It also set up training institutes, including the Kigali Health Institute (KHI), and in 2008 effected laws making health insurance mandatory for all individuals; by 2010, over 90% of the population was covered. These policies have contributed to a steady increase in quality of healthcare and improvement in key indicators during Kagame's presidency. In 2010, 91 children died before their fifth birthday for every 1000 live births, down from 163 under five deaths for every 1000 live births in 1990. Prevalence of some diseases is declining, including the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus and a sharp reduction in malaria morbidity, mortality rate, and specific lethality. In response to shortages in qualified medical personnel, in 2011 the Rwandan government launched an eight-year US$151.8 million initiative to train medical professionals.

Kagame has garnered praise for the country's response to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the country having a relatively underdeveloped health care system, Rwanda has one of the lowest infection and mortality rates in the world, and is seen as a success story. Rwanda is currently the only nation in Africa whose residents are permitted to enter the Schengen Area for non essential travel. Rwanda's response has not been without its criticisms, in particular the curbing of civil liberties and individual freedoms. By April 2022. Rwanda was one of the few countries in Africa to have fully vaccinated over 60% of its population against COVID-19.

Personal life

Jeannette Kagame, Paul Kagame's wife

On 10 June 1989 in Uganda, Kagame married Jeannette Nyiramongi, a Tutsi exile living in Nairobi, Kenya. Kagame had asked his relatives to suggest a suitable marriage and they recommended Nyiramongi. Kagame travelled to Nairobi and introduced himself, persuading her to visit him in Uganda. Nyiramongi was familiar with the RPF and its goal of returning refugees to Rwanda. She held Kagame in high regard. The couple have four children.

Kagame's daughter, Ange Kagame Ndengeyingoma, completed her education abroad and was absent from the public eye for most of her childhood due to security and privacy reasons. She attended Dana Hall School, a private preparatory school located in Wellesley, Massachusetts in the United States. She attended Smith College where she majored in political science with a minor in African studies. She also holds a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University. Kagame can speak three languages, English, Kinyarwanda, and French.

Kagame is Catholic.

Honours

Benin:
- Grand Cross of the National Order of Benin (2010)
Burkina Faso:
- Grand Cross of the Ordre de l'Étalon [fr], formerly National Order of Burkina Faso (2019)
Central African Republic:
- Grand Cross of the Order of Reconnaissance of Central African (2019)
Guinea:
- Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit (2016)
Guinea-Bissau:
- Recipient of the Medal of Amílcar Cabral (20 June 2024)
Ivory Coast
- Grand Cross of the National Order of the Ivory Coast (2018)
Morocco:
- Collar of the Order of Muhammad (2016)
Liberia:
- Grand Cordon of the Order of the Pioneers of Liberia (2009)
Serbia:
- Second Class of the Order of the Republic of Serbia (2016)
Uganda:
- Most Excellent Order of the Pearl of Africa: Grand Master (2012)
La Francophonie:
- Grand Cross of the Order of La Pléiade (2022)

Images for kids

Kagame served under Yoweri Museveni (pictured) in the Ugandan Bush War.
The Virunga Mountains, Kagame's RPF base from 1990 to 1991
Vice President Kagame with United States Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, July 1994
A refugee camp in Zaire, 1994
Belligerents of the Second Congo War
Kagame in 2010
Kagame with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June 2018
Anti-government rebels from the March 23 (M23) Movement, widely considered to have been supported by Rwanda, during their capture of the provincial capital at Goma in North Kivu in November 2012.
Kagame, DRC president Félix Tshisekedi and other African leaders at the Russia–Africa Summit in Sochi on 24 October 2019
Kagame with the other four East African Community Heads of States in April 2009
Kagame with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on 7 April 2024
Paul Kagame with United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in September 2009
Kagame with US President Joe Biden at the United States–Africa Leaders Summit in 2022
Kagame visited the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary conference in Busan, South Korea.
Protests against Kagame during his May 2006 visit to the White House. The banner in the center says the United States should "stop supporting the genocide in [the] DR Congo".