To friends obsessed with “human rights and freedoms, perceived poverty” in Rwanda

By George Kalisa

Before presenting deceptions about lack of freedoms of speech and opinion, and perceived poverty in your home country, I feel it’s better you first get an idea about them. But, if you’re one of the activists indoctrinated by criminals on the run for the last 27 years or so, then my advice may fall on a deaf ear.

To understand why many levelheaded people and high profile world leaders [present and past] don’t mince a word when it comes to issues of human rights and freedoms, and poverty in Rwanda, your head should be clear of the lethal propaganda preached by the likes of Dr. David Himbara.

If the reverse is true, then you could be too corrupted to appreciate the reasons why Rwanda is fast becoming a domicile for highly influential foreign investors along graduating into an unmatched tourism destination in the region. No wonder, the landlocked East African Community country has everyone talking. I’m prompted to write a few facts about Rwanda by a FB friend who wrote a blanket statement on my status recently.

“The climate and breezes at Radisson Blu Hotel & Convention Centre, Kigali send off stress after a busy day,” reads my post. George William Ssebuggwawo is My FB A/C Name.

Shyaka M. Emmy: Ukunda urwanda ssebo

GWS: Hari umuntu ashobora ukwanga ibyiza sha!!

Shyaka M. Emmy: Reka reka ibyiza.out but in uzabaze bazakubwira bavuu nyoo

GWS: Where is the opposite of yo unjustified insinuation, a blanket statement or allegation

Shyaka M. Emmy: anyway. rwandaa!!!!

In the first place this FB friend violated my right to academic freedom, freedom of speech and opinion. I have risen up through the ranks of journalism right from a reporter (based in Kigali, Rwanda) with the New Vision before working as a Correspondent for EFE News Agency (Spain) to Chief Editor of the leading English Rwandan Magazine (The Light Magazine). Being a celebrated academia and journalist I post something that can be backed by empirical facts. My detailed profile, next time, anyway.

“Reka reka ibyiza.out but in uzabaze bazakubwira bavuu nyooo” (literally meaning No! no! good outside, but investigate inside, they’ll tell you, they’re (Rwandans) very very poor).  

Choosing self-exile in that country, ruled by a longtime strongman, with poverty levels soaring each passing day, is not tantamount to publicly exposing ignorance or unleashing hate and envy against posts people who not only see the good things in Rwanda but also enjoy them.

We’ve for years lived and worked in the country you minimize without documented facts, and our testimony about the political, social and economic transformation is actually the opposite of the one traded by hate-filled Rwandans suffering in self exile.

Usually, we don’t respond to them because we’re busy enjoying the unique investment climate and obviously the impeccable and assured security within the Rwandan borders as they’re preoccupied with posting lies and fabrications about the fundamental human rights particularly of freedom of speech and opinion in Rwanda in an exchange for asylum and sometimes pizzas and wines.

I signed in my FB account. First words I read: “What is on your mind?” The breezes originating from the serene and tranquil environ of Radisson Blu Hotel & Convention Centre, were enhancing my mood for tourism and relaxing mood to be specific, the idea of posting about this matchless climate in the region crossed my mind like lightening and was irresistible and audible like thunder.  

“The climate and breezes at Radisson Blu Hotel & Convention Centre send off the stress after a busy day,” I posted and put the photo of the 5 STAR Hotel imposing in the heart of Africa’s cleanest green city, Kigali in whose premises I was standing (see featured picture above).

Little did I know that what was on my mind was evoking anger from a FB friend, now living in self-exile, obsessed with propagating lies about Rwanda in an exchange for a meal from criminals on the run, with allegiance to the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), a terrorist group – masquerading as Rwanda’s opposition political party and/or rebel group, and have found a safe haven in some countries that are evidently envious of Rwanda’s pro-people development trajectory, peace and stability.

For the last 27 years, they’ve been hiding in some ally countries in Europe, Canada and America and of recent in a neighbouring country where this Shyaka now lives, a deduction from his language when he’s posting “bavuu nnyo” (an insinuation that Rwandans in Rwanda are suffering from abject poverty).

My friend, if you don’t subscribe to any of the categories, then, your statements give great inference that you’re a 3-1-1 sympathizer. They committed crimes against humanity – they committed the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, they raped women, And, they’re running from country to country to escape justice, now 27 years. How do we know them?

They have a common behavior. They’re jealous of Rwanda’s fast economic growth, of the success story of unity and reconciliation. They’re obsessed by the ego of falsifying the country’s history and upending the country’s good image and make all attempts to impress the human rights watchdogs who make a living by writing reports based on armchair research and lies traded by marauding killers and enemies of Rwanda, always denying that there is socio-economic transformation.They say that Rwandans are not happy et cetera. In my opinion, Shyaka’s FB conversation talks volumes about envy, hate and desire to destabilize Rwanda.       

The blanket and unsubstantiated statements give an inkling that my FB friend could be a political activist subscribing to RNC, a group long declared a terrorist group by the Kigali administration or he’s a fugitive or revisionist or denier of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

If you were lucky to look at prayer requests lists of several foreigners, NUMBER ONE PRAYER REQUEST TO GOD is to get a Rwandan Nationality, mine [prayer request list] included. I see the whites buying Rwandan nationality everyday as if it were a ticket to Heaven. And, the likes of Shyaka adamantly refuse to investigate the reasons behind this trend.

The answer is simple, people at any point on planet earth long to have healthy climates, unadulterated peace, security, tranquility and a high degree of certainty of their future. In political Science, we refer to this as political stability.     

On top of my practical experience as a media practitioner, let me use the current World Bank report on Rwanda’s economic growth to demystify the lies propagated by the likes of Shyaka on various social media platforms.

Before the novel Coronavirus pandemic, Rwanda was in the middle of economic boom with growth exceeding 10% (2019). Notably, growth averaged 7.2% over the decade to 2019. Is this what you call “bavuu nnyo”.

The World Bank report on Rwanda indicates that by 2015 stunting dropped to 38% down from 44% in 2010.

One of the early adopters of the Human Capital Project and the Stunting Prevention and Reduction Project (SPRP) is Rwanda, and high-level political commitment demonstrated since 2017 are some the factors that are responsible for the drastic fall in stunting.   

Rwanda projects stunting at 19% by 2024 and currently stands at 33% (2020).

Owing to Rwanda’s steadfast massive investment into health systems, education, agriculture and other key components of economic growth, life expectancy at birth has shot up from 63.4% years (2010) to 67.8% (2020) according to National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).

I have never been an apologist to the Kigali administration and it is not about to happen but as a Christian aspiring for Heaven who mastered that telling lies is sin, I will always tell the truth and give credit where it is due. So, my FB friend, Shyaka stop trading lies about Rwanda or else stake unfriending you. The bitter truth that inflicts Rwanda’s enemy is that the country continues to be ahead of the curve.

If I secure an interview with H.E President Paul Kagame, the questionnaire will start with the problem of such people who upend Rwanda’s progress. Here it goes:

“My first question, Your Excellency, can you please explain to our readers why people particularly Rwandans that choose self exile are jealous of your achievements, and your compatriots’ enjoyment of their freedoms?

“The second and last question, Your Excellency, Is it possible to invest and do tourism in the dark and forested mountains infested by mosquitoes and home to marauding rebels or on the dirt streets of cities defined by institutional corruption, stench smell, floods, disturbing violent riots, a string of suicide bombings and teargas?” Thank you Mr. President.