How the West’s Favorite Autocrat Engineered Africa’s Most Dramatic Turnaround

Once a year, Paul Kagame, the longtime president of Rwanda, hosts a nationally televised program known as Umushyikirano. It’s a unique spectacle, drawing millions of viewers to what amounts to the ritual opening of a complaint box. Kagame assembles politicians and public servants in the Kigali Convention Center, then relays criticisms of their performance and of programs they oversee, sent in via social media or from meeting halls across the country. He calls them to account, often in humiliating fashion.

At the event last February, a businessman rose to complain about having to visit up to five agencies to obtain licenses. This was despite the existence of a “one-stop center” on the ground floor of the Rwanda Development Board’s offices, where entrepreneurs are supposed to be able to get everything they need to set up a business, from permits to immigration services, within six hours.