Thirty years after the Hutus’ genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the country is modern and clean – a magnet for investors. But President Kagame leads his state with a hard hand.
When a plane was shot down with a rocket while approaching the Rwandan capital Kigali on the morning of April 7, 1994, two African presidents were assassinated: Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira. Both belonged to the Hutus ethnic group. On the same day, a massacre that lasted almost 100 days began, a bloody chapter in African history, the consequences of which continue to shape the East African region to this day.
Around two thirds of the Tutsi minority were killed. The genocide was led by the Hutu-dominated army, presidential guard and national police. Moderate Hutus who did not take part in the murders or wanted to prevent them were also among the victims. Between 800,000 and a million people died. Western governments watched and did not intervene. The UN even withdrew its blue helmets, fueling the killings.
The Rwandan genocide leaves painful memories in many ways. In Rwanda, of course, but also on an international level. What is even more shocking is how little both sides have learned. Little Rwanda has risen and has experienced remarkable economic development. Today the landlocked country is “the island of calm” on the otherwise conflict-ridden African continent. Modern, clean, hardly any crime. This attracts investors, but behind the façade of success is an autocratic state that is led with a heavy hand by the former rebel leader and current President Paul Kagame. Rwanda’s resurrection is built on uncompromising.
Two police officers on every corner
Norman Schräpel stands at the red light in the Rwandan capital Kigali and laughs heartily chatting with the other motorcyclists. The German’s machine is causing a stir, as it is significantly stronger than the army of standard motorcycles that dominate Rwanda’s cities. Together everyone looks expectantly at the digital countdown of the traffic lights, so that they can rush off to point zero like a swarm of bees, but in an orderly and organized manner. It’s so different from other big African cities. Kigali’s streets are clean and there are two police officers on every corner. “I’m only driving a small machine here. Given the speed limits, it’s not worth doing anything else,” says Schräpel, almost apologetically. 60 km/h applies everywhere in the country. Very rarely does 80 work. There is a flash machine on every corner, all “Made in Germany”. Like everything in Rwanda, the speed limit is meticulously monitored, checked using the most modern means, enforced by the police and violators are punished dearly. The road situation is, in a sense, a symbol of the new Rwanda.
“I think what you can learn from Rwanda is that with a lot of political will you can make progress very quickly,” says Norman Schräpel. He is head of the German-Rwandan Digital Transformation Center in Rwanda. On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), Schräpel’s team is helping to digitize Rwanda. Faster than Germany. “We often know Rwanda from its history, the genocide thirty years ago, and we rarely know that a quiet technological revolution is taking place here,” says Schräpel. It helps that everything in the state is organized centrally. “We work on very different levels. On the one hand, we train the specialists we need in AI and cybersecurity,” says Schräpel.
“Very, very strong partners in the government”
On the other hand, the Germans are actually helping to program here and are trying to improve the framework conditions so that investments from outside are possible. “We have very, very strong partners in the government here.” Strong in many ways. President Kagame is above everything. He personally sets the direction. The 66-year-old leads his country and his party like a dictator. He repeatedly has political opponents arrested and even killed, many of them even abroad in KGB style. The former rebel movement, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), at the head of which he drove the murderous Hutu rulers out of the country over the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo thirty years ago, is the favorite for the upcoming elections on July 15th.
Kagame is running for the presidency for the fourth time. In 2017 he won 99 percent of the vote. The numbers give an idea of the background to the election process. All serious opposing candidates are either in custody or, like opposition politician Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, were prevented from running as candidates by a court decision a few days ago. After her last attempt to run, she spent eight years in prison, five of them in solitary confinement. She was accused of terrorist acts and trivializing the genocide.
“Those five years of solitary confinement were hard,” she says. “I could barely hold myself together mentally. Once a week they allowed me five minutes in the fresh air. Every Friday a visitor was allowed to come. For ten minutes.” Ingabire was personally pardoned by President Kagame in 2018. But she is not entitled to a passport, is not allowed to get involved in politics and is not allowed to visit her family in the Netherlands. “I’ll carry on anyway,” she says. “Since the genocide against the Tutsis, democracy has not developed in Rwanda. We need reform. We need independent courts that defend human rights and we must urgently initiate real reconciliation between different population groups.”
In Kigali everyone pays with their smartphone
For Western governments, including Germany, Kagame’s Rwanda is still considered a safe bank. You can do good business in an investment-friendly dictatorship. The latest German company to set up shop in Kigali is Biontech. It is the Mainz-based company’s only African location.
President Kagame loves such investments. He recently condemned the widespread practice of carrying burdens on the head, a cause of poverty, on the African continent. Such behavior does not suit a modern state like Rwanda, said Kagame. His visionary politics focuses on the cities, primarily Kigali. Everyone there now pays with their cell phone. “Momo Mobile” is the name of the digital payment system. Designed specifically for Rwanda, like all innovations, this platform is also accompanied by a business model that can be sold.
The Rwandan government is also one of the few in Africa to have its own artificial intelligence strategy. “The goal is to quickly use AI for the population, but also for the state,” says Schräpel. His team supports a project that uses AI to predict landslides. Cameras are being installed that take several thousand images a day and can detect cracks in the ground. Rwanda wouldn’t be Rwanda if there wasn’t a business model behind it. GIZ is asked for help with development – if the project is successful, Rwanda sells it to others as its own.
Drones for blood supplies and pig semen
There are many such examples, such as transport drones. The Zipline company received a license to transport all blood supplies in Rwanda. They are dropped from the air in small packages over hospitals. Nowhere had anything like this ever been considered, approved, let alone supported by a government. “We now operate an average of 458 flights in Rwanda every day,” says CEO Pierre Kayitana. In addition to blood, medicine and pig semen are also transported by drone. The latter is dropped over remote farms, directly into the hands of a veterinarian, ready for artificial insemination. “Proof of concept”, providing proof of concept, that is the Rwandan government doctrine. True to the motto: Anyone can come to us and try out new technologies here. Investors love this playground. The concern that the relatively large drones could crash over populated areas and injure citizens is taken into account in Rwanda. Your flight safety has been proven here. Zipline drones are now in use in five African countries. “We also fly in Ukraine. Australia and Great Britain are next,” says Kayitana proudly.
But military observers are worried. Rwanda’s drone operations inevitably take place in the small country on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. There, where M23 rebels are currently trying to take Goma, apparently with the support of the Rwandan government. The experience that Rwanda, which is well armed militarily, has gained from transporting blood with drones can easily be used militarily. The M23 rebels are, so to speak, a Rwandan army operating in a neighboring country. President Kagame regularly denies allegations of support, but all international studies prove the opposite. It is the continuation of the fighting between Tutsis and Hutus thirty years after the genocide. Millions of people in eastern Congo are on the run these days. To put it cynically, this is also Rwanda’s innovative policy.
But there are no sanctions from Western nations. Not a momentous intervention. On the contrary. Great Britain has signed billion-dollar contracts with Rwanda for the deportation and reception of illegal migrants. Numerous British and European courts have rejected these plans because of the questionable human rights situation in Rwanda. Nevertheless, a delegation from the CDU/CSU, including CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt, recently traveled to Kigali to find out more on site. The CDU and CSU officially consider the deportation of illegal migrants based on the Rwanda model to be good.
Thin line between digital transformation and surveillance state
Dobrindt also met Norman Schräpel in Kigali. In the hip GIZ digital transformation center, next to the table tennis table, pool table and coffee bar, Schräpel also reported to this delegation about Rwanda’s successes. Most impressive for German parliamentarians: the digital administration. “Here in Rwanda you only need a few clicks on the government’s own online portal IREMBO and you get a birth certificate, a building permit and a passport within 48 hours,” reports Schräpel in such situations. “We have worked a lot with the Germans in the past few months,” says IREMBO Managing Director Israel Bimbe. “They help us understand the full extent of government offerings and find smart ways to offer them to citizens.”
In the future, IREMBO should be further expanded with German cooperation. IREMBO also plans to help citizens open bank accounts or insurance. You are way ahead of the world, says Bimbe. “Everything that has to do with government authorities, private companies or the university should be seamlessly done primarily digitally in the future.” Of course you don’t want to leave anyone behind. That’s why there are “agents” in rural areas who help citizens without smartphones or computers with online errands.
In a surveillance state like Rwanda, digitalization inevitably leads to more citizen control. Unsurprisingly, data protection and security are not a priority here. It’s a fine line, even for Norman Schräpel. “You have to make sure that certain systems can also be used differently. Accordingly, we make political assessments when it comes to which projects can be implemented.” In other words, the danger has been recognized that Germany will help an undemocratic system to expand power over its citizens.