Africa’s most admired dictator rolls the dice

Back in the 1990s Paul Kagame grabbed global attention as the leader of a rebel group that halted the Rwandan genocide, the worst mass atrocity of the past four decades. In the 2000s and 2010s he became Africa’s most admired dictator, turning Rwanda from a graveyard into a case study at Harvard Business School, with one of the fastest growth rates in the world. Those who pointed to his regime’s brutal suppression of dissent and assassinations of opponents were ignored. For Western donors, Mr Kagame was the leader who proved that aid could be spent well. For African elites starved of examples of well-run states, he was a role model.