Kagame says he is mystified by the travel ban placed on Rwanda by the Boris Johnson government because Rwanda is more effective in handling COVID-19 than Britain.
Rwandan head of state General Paul Kagame is furious with the Boris Johnson government for banning travel from Rwanda. Kagame expressed his anger in a conversation with Lord Lebedev who visited Rwanda on February 27, 2021, and published an article about the visit in his newspaper, The Independent. Kagame is fuming mad that the UK placed Rwanda on the red list on the same day that Rwanda was pronounced a top performer in handling the Covid19 pandemic. On February 27, 2021, an Australian think tank by the name of Lowy Institute ranked Rwanda the 6th most effective in handling Covis19, versus the UK at 66th out of 98 countries.
That is why Kagame condemns the Boris Johnson government’s actions as politically motivated and a travesty of scientific evidence. The UK officials from ministers, the ambassador and embassy officials, have failed to explain the basis of the British government’s decision to ban Rwanda, says Kagame:
“We’ve asked the embassy, the ambassador, we have had ministers talk to ministers in London. The answers they give are revealing, in the sense that they don’t actually give you a reason…Worse still, the statement on the ban came on the same day that Rwanda was declared number six in the world in its management of this pandemic.”
The UK travel ban includes 33 countries, of which 17 are in Africa. Unlike Rwanda, however, none of these countries demanded that the British government explain its decision. The governments of these countries respected the judgement of the UK leaders and policymakers. Kagame would have none of it. His exaggerated sense of self-importance is on public display. Worse still, it did not occur to Kagame that the Lowry institute that gave Rwanda an excellent grade for battling the virus is not exactly the World Health Organization (WHO) or another globally-known institution involved in containing the Covid19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Kagame-Johnson battle is taking place at an awkward time for the Rwandan strongman. Kagame can hardly wait to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in four months, after which he will be the Commonwealth Chair-in-Office (CIO) for the next two years. The CIO is a leadership position held by the host chairperson of the previous, and is maintained until the next CHOGM. Currently, the CIO is no other than Boris Johnson.