Is Rwanda Really A Police State?

Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan libertarian journalist who has been in Rwanda of late, argues:

Many observers have concluded President Kagame's victory was a product of political repression. But such an approach ignores the internal political dynamics that drive Rwanda and thus strip it of its history, context and specificity. A serious discussion of Rwanda must be rooted in its internal dynamics."

Mr. Mwenda continues his commentary about Rwanda: "If Rwanda is a repressive state relying on the police to subdue people, then its citizens should hate the police. If its judiciary is compromised and unable to deliver impartial justice, citizens should feel so. However evidence shows the contrary. The World Values Survey is the most respected source of research on attitudes of citizens to public institutions globally. It researches on institutional trust (the degree to which individuals in a country have confidence in its institutions like government, parliament and public administration). In its 2008 survey it found Rwandans to have the highest confidence in their public institutions of any country in Sub Saharan Africa. Looking at institutions that should be the agents of repression in a police state (police and courts), 92% of Rwandans believed that in dispensing justice, their courts do not act under pressure from other powers; and 88 percent have trust in the police to be honest and fair. Rwanda was in the top ten countries with the highest trustworthiness citizens had in their public institutions in all indicators alongside the world’s leading democracies: Austria, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Switzerland and New Zealand. In Africa’s 'democracies', only 27 percent of Tanzanians and 23 percent of Kenyans trust the police. Democracies like South Africa (80 percent), Namibia (81 percent) Malawi (79 percent) scored less than Rwanda regarding the independence of the judiciary."

More: "Someone may argue that Rwandans are so deeply repressed, they lie to pollsters. But how come other repressive states like Saudi Arabia, Burma and North Korea do not score highly to be alongside democracies? Has Kagame bribed all these institutions to falsify results for him? If Rwanda is a police state, we need a better and more nuanced explanation than mere accusations and assertions. Any conception of repression in Rwanda collapses when supposed victims feel differently. The only way to save such a deductive theory is to create a new one to explain the incongruity. And this is the dilemma critics of Kagame face."