Our Man Is Finished: Kagame's Rwandan State of Himself Collapsing

David Himbara’s memoir was inspired by two questions people ask based on his seven-year tenure inside Kagame’s powerhouse:

1. Who really runs Rwanda?

2. Who is the real Kagame out of the multiple personas he projects?

What Himbara observed is simply this — Kagame’s Rwanda is a state of himself. Ferociously reinforcing the Kagame state is his family and associates led by none other than Madam Jannette Kagame. They deploy any weapon including even death to safeguard their state.

Himbara, therefore, repudiates the notions that Rwanda is a military regime, a one-party state, or controlled by wealthy Rwandans who financed the 1990-1994 battle that put Kagame into power. Kagame destroyed all of the above.

The most heartbreaking part of Himbara’s memoir is the deaths of his workmates inside the Kagames’ powerhouse — they got killed while under state custody, died mysteriously, or were assassinated outside Rwanda. Of the wealthy Rwandans who financed the Kagame-led 1990-1994 battle, two died and are buried in exile, and one died mysteriously in Rwanda.

Who is the real Kagame, you ask? He projects himself as Nelson Mandela's disciple with a mission to end poverty in Africa. Kagame is a twin to Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang who similarly turned government into a lucrative family business.

As of March 2025, Kagame is no longer the global elites’ favourite strongman. They cut him off their aid funds after he entrapped himself inside DRC. One development is undoubtedly shaking Kagame’s state of himself to the core — DRC’s Félix Tshisekedi is forging an economic and defence partnership with Donald Trump. The last time Trump was in office, he expelled Rwanda from duty-free access to the US market. Our man is finished.