Kigali's March Towards Cosmopolitanism is Inevitable

There are two or three things that are symbolic of important reforms President Paul Kagame’s leadership has put in place since Twenty-seventeen. One, the reforms in the justice sector. These can be seen particularly through the creation of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), which was established in early Twenty-eighteen. Two, the professionalisation of the military. Ongoing strides, for instance, can be viewed through leadership changes in top positions at the Ministry of Defense. Faces of younger, well-read, and seemingly pragmatic senior military officers send a positive message.

These reforms are important because they lay the foundation for rule of law and peace for the future. In times of political crisis, the military and the justice sector, at the very least, form a pair of institutions to ensure stability. (I could have missed out on another element, but it’s always better to leave such details for experts to explain.)

To understand many of the reforms that are taking place in Kigali, one needs to understand what the country's leadership has set itself to achieve. Rwanda is looking to become an upper-middle-income country by Twenty-thirty-five and a high-income economy by the year Twenty-fifty. And, to achieve this, according to a collaborative study between the government and the World Bank, the country will have “to grow faster than any country (China and Korea included) has in the past.”