Exclusive: Wendy Murphy, 56, challenged Rwanda’s Paul Kagame to defend his record on social media. She never expected a response. There is nothing in the UK Foreign Office’s advice for travelling to Rwanda that warns against contacting the country’s authoritarian leader to ask if he is a dictator.
In a small African state where critics of the government have reportedly been made to disappear, the need for a little caution might seem self-evident. Yet one British tourist and her family decided to throw caution to the wind, and found themselves at the centre of a Twitter storm, visited by two government officials, and firmly on the radar of the President himself.
President Paul Kagame entered Rwanda at the head of an army to end its genocide 22 years ago, and has been the dominant force in its politics ever since. His critics say he has stifled political plurality and personal freedoms, shut down opposition media and stage-managed constitutional reforms to ensure he remains in power until, potentially, the year 2034.
