Rwanda’s Kagame dismisses FT story as western propaganda

FT investigation had revealed that some statistics could have been manipulated

By Tom Wilson

Since Paul Kagame became president of Rwanda in 2000, he has overseen rapid economic growth and dramatic improvements in access to education and healthcare, according to official statistics, but faced increasing criticism of his authoritarianism © Reuters

Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, has publicly rejected a report by the Financial Times that national poverty data had been misrepresented in the run-up to a constitutional referendum in 2015 that allowed the head of state to extend his then 15-year rule for up to another two decades. “I wish I could make any data toe my line because my line, I am convinced, is a good one. But at the same time, I will bet with anyone that there is actually nothing fake or fabricated or doctored about the progress we are making, there is no question about it,” Mr Kagame said in a speech in the capital Kigali. The FT reported on Tuesday that the results of a household survey in 2015 looked to have been skewed to show continued progress in reducing poverty. According to an FT analysis of the survey data collected by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, rising prices for rural Rwandan families meant poverty levels almost certainly increased between 2011 and 2014. The NISR claimed poverty fell by 6.9 percentage points during the period.

Since Mr Kagame became president in 2000, he has overseen rapid economic growth and dramatic improvements in access to education and healthcare, according to official statistics, but faced increasing criticism of his authoritarianism. Following the referendum, he was elected for a third term in 2017 with 99 per cent of the vote. Former government officials and regime critics have also questioned the reliability of the regime’s economic data. Mr Kagame described the FT’s report as “western propaganda” and pointed to a decision this week by the rating agency Standard and Poor’s to raise Rwanda’s long-term sovereign credit rating from B to B+ as evidence of the country’s continued progress. “The same time that story is going on in the FT there are also many other stories that are based on facts,” Mr Kagame said. Mr Kagame was addressing a group of more than 3,000 young people as part of a series of speeches in which the president meets different groups of Rwandans. He suggested to the young audience that the FT story might have been generated by regime opponents and said he was ready to defend his record. “I honestly enjoy these fights and not only in words,” he said.

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