President Kagame speaks to the media on Thursday, January 9. Photos/Urugwiro Village.
A presidential press conference, especially one held at the beginning of a year, promises much, in illuminating what is to come, and explaining what has been. President Kagame’s first press conference of 2025, was a tour de force that more than delivered on every account.
There are the national flags, but otherwise, the Rwandan head of state, who on occasion has been described as ascetic, prefers a minimalist presentation. One man, at a small desk, a chair and a side table for water, if or when he needs it, facing a phalanx of cameras, and expectant journalists. The message is the thing, and it is almost always to herald or explain action.
On Thursday, the questions ranged from the domestic, including the thinking behind ministerial, and other public officials’ reshuffles, proper and timely compensation for anyone subject to compulsory purchasing order, due to infrastructure development, to the workings of the African Union, and of course, the crisis in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and what it will take to get it resolved.
President Kagame took questions on a wide range of issues.
The president’s responses warrant ongoing analysis, but equally instructive, is the manner of their delivery. Most experienced journalists ask questions in a way they hope will be difficult for politicians to avoid or evade them.
The very idea of doing either, is foreign to President Kagame. He will either answer the question fully, giving the background, in a way that almost always gives the questioner a deeper understanding of whatever the issue might be, or he will simply politely but firmly, explain why he would really rather not give an answer to the particular question. Whatever the question, the answer is either crystal clear, or any equally clear explanation, why he will not go into any detail about it.
After Thursday’s press conference, no one who genuinely wishes to get a clear picture of the domestic issues of the day, or where Rwanda stands on what is arguably the most pressing security challenge in the Great Lakes region, will have been left in any doubt.
The media being what it is of course, it should come as no surprise, if when he next makes himself available to journalists, similar, if not the same questions come up. Should that happen, he will almost certainly patiently answer it, but he would be perfectly justified in borrowing the phrase often heard in Britain’s House of Commons, when the Prime minister refers the questioner to “the answer I gave earlier.”
