Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military leader. He is the 6th and current president of Rwanda, having taken office in 2000. He was considered Rwanda’s de facto leader when he served as Vice President and Minister of Defence from 1994 to 2000. As president, Kagame has prioritized national development, launching a programme to develop Rwanda as a middle-income country by 2020.

About Paul Kagame in brief

Summary Paul KagamePaul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military leader. He is the 6th and current president of Rwanda, having taken office in 2000. Kagame previously commanded the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the Uganda-based rebel force that invaded Rwanda and was one of the parties of the conflict during the Rwanda genocide. He was considered Rwanda’s de facto leader when he served as Vice President and Minister of Defence from 1994 to 2000. As president, Kagame has prioritized national development, launching a programme to develop Rwanda as a middle-income country by 2020. As of 2013, the country is developing strongly on key indicators, including health care and education; annual growth between 2004 and 2010 averaged 8% per year. He has had mostly good relations with the East African Community and the United States; his relations with France were poor until 2009. A 2015 amendment to the 2003 constitution relaxed term limits that would have ended his presidency in 2017. His role in the assassination of exiled political opponents has been controversial and he has been described as the \”most impressive\” and \”among the most repressive\” African leaders. His father, Deogratias, was a member of the Tutsi ethnic group, which had been derived from the eighteenth century. At the time of Kagame’s birth, Rwanda was a United Nations Trust Territory, still ruled by Belgium but still ruled with a mandate to oversee the territory.

His mother, Asteria Rutagambwa, descended from the last Rwandan queen of the family of Rosalie Gicanda, the last queen of Rwandan Rundu, who was born in 1957. The Rwandan Revolution ended centuries of Tutsis political dominance; his family fled to Uganda, where he spent the rest of his childhood. He became a senior Ugandan army officer after Yoweri Museveni’s military victories carried him to the Ugandan presidency. Kagame was born on 23 October 1957, in Tambwe, Rundi, a village located in what is now the Southern rundi Province of Rwanda. His family had a long-time connection to Belgium, but he pursued an independent business career rather than maintain a close connection to the royal court to maintain his close ties to Belgium. He has a son, Joseph Kagame, who is the current President of Rwanda and served as the Prime Minister of Rwanda from 2009 to 2013. He also has a daughter, Agnes Kagame-Rwanda, who served as Rwanda’s Prime Minister from 2010 to 2013 and is the President of the Rwanda National Council from 2013 to 2014. He is married to the former Rwandan Prime Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, and has two sons, Emmanuel Kagame and Paul Kagame. The couple have a son and daughter-in-law, who were born in 1994 and 2013. The couple has two children, Emmanuel and Agnes-Kagame, and a son-and-daughter-law.