Dr David Himbara - Rwanda isn’t anyone’s darling, but to its strategic interests


The international friends that engage with Rwanda and its leadership don’t do so out of charity, they do that because it is a constructive partnership. The list of friends hasn’t reduced, as RNC-propagandist Dr David Himbara would like us to believe, but rather keeps at growing.

Himbara may not be aware that at COP28 in Dubai, Rwanda’s innovative green vision won accolades. Rwanda’s pavilion was the-go-to place for everyone looking for the big idea.

Green City Kigali, a masterplan for the sustainable and inclusive expansion of urban Kigali also won the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Future Project Masterplan Award last week.

The Rwandan delegation to COP28 led by President Paul Kagame will be coming back home with over $250m in partnership financing for different green projects. Himbara, this to us here in Rwanda and every right-thinking person, doesn’t look like a country in distress.

I will volunteer others numbers that speak for themselves. Dr Himbara, you don’t have to trust my figures. You can check for yourself with the Word Bank and IMF, because you’re fond of using their data.

The amount of international financing partnership for Rwanda increased by over Rwf 151billion ($150m) between 2021 and 2022. I have not considered this year because some of the financing is still in the paperwork.

I have considered the previous two years because that financing was disbursed and has already been spent. This is what the numbers look like.

In the 2021 financial year, grant financing was Rwf 527,874,263,907 ($527m). For last year, the figure went up to Rwf 678,876,512,111 ($678m).

There is absolutely no reason the figure won’t go up for this year. Going by the prevailing international state of affairs, 2023 has already been looking good for Rwanda.

The changes in the partnership with one partner doesn’t mean what Himbara wants it to be. The reason financing goes down or up for a particular partner usually has different dimensions, which Himbara is aware of but is choosing to deliberately mislead you the reader.

The changes to a partnership between Rwanda and its friends could be because a project that was being financed, is winding down. The other factor is that Rwanda could have it’s own internal resources to run a particular project, so doesn’t require outside engagement.

The other reality that Dr Himbara is very much aware of, are the numerous international gatherings taking place daily in Kigali. Since the beginning of the year, every week, there is a big international event bringing multitudes of visitors to Rwanda. I cannot list them here; there’s just not enough writing space.

Dr Himbara, just because you wish that Rwanda and it’s leadership should be suffering doesn’t necessarily translate into reality. Just because you want international partners to abandon Rwanda doesn’t make it reality.


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