Paul Kagame

==Public image and personality==
[[File:Rwandan President Paul Kagame.jpg|thumb|upright|Kagame visited the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary conference in [[Busan]], South Korea.|alt=Picture of Kagame, standing, wearing a dark suit with purple tie]]
Views on his leadership vary widely among international scholars and journalists.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=154}} According to political scientist Alexander Dukalskis, Kagame has been adept in developing a sophisticated positive image of Rwanda abroad.{{sfn|Dukalskis|2021|p=140}} Dukalskis says that to suppress negative information, the Kagame regime has curtailed access to academics and journalists, and threatened and assassinated critics of the regime.{{sfn|Dukalskis|2021|p=140}} Others, such as [[Philip Gourevitch]], author of the 1998 book ''[[We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families]]'', focus on his achievements in ending the genocide after the international community failed to do so, as well as the reconciliation, economic growth, foreign investment, improved public health and education.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=154}}{{sfn|Waldorf|2017}} This is countered by authors such as Judi Rever, who highlight war crimes committed by the RPF before, during, and after the 1994 genocide, the effects of the civil war, assassinations of opponents and the totalitarianism of his regime.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=154}}{{sfn|Matfess|2015}}{{sfn|Congo Forum|2016}} In ''Rethinking the Rwandan Narrative for the 25th Anniversary'', Gerald Caplan states that a new narrative is required to reconcile these conflicting viewpoints, incorporating aspects from both points of view and "striking the proper balance between the old and the newly revised".{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=185}}

In Rwanda, Kagame's RPF is seen as a Tutsi-dominated party, and in the years following the 1994 genocide, it was deeply unpopular with the Hutu, who constitute {{Percentage|85|100|0}} of the population.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|pp=122–123}} Approximately two million Hutu lived as refugees in neighbouring countries until 1996, when Kagame forced them to return home.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|pp=122–123}} Many Hutu also supported the late 1990s cross-border insurgency against Kagame by defeated forces of the former regime.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=209}} By 1999, the RPF had weakened the insurgents and Tutsi and Hutu began living together peacefully in the northwest. Kayumba Nyamwasa, at the time still part of the Rwandan army, said that "the mood had changed", attributing a shift in Hutu attitude to a shift in the "balance of forces in the country", with the genocidaires having "no chance of returning to power".{{sfn|Brittain|1999}} As of 2021, with a lack of free speech in Rwanda,{{sfn|Freedom House|2011}} and elections which are generally regarded as lacking freedom and fairness,{{sfn|Department of State (II)|2017}}{{sfn|Human Rights Watch (IV)|2017}}{{sfn|Deutsche Welle|2017}}{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=161}} Kagame's popularity among the Rwandwan population is unknown. Journalists Jason Burke of ''[[The Guardian]]'' and ''[[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]]'''s Rashid Abdallah describe the president as "authentically popular in Rwanda" and as enjoying "overwhelming public support" respectively.{{sfn|Burke|2017}}{{sfn|Abdallah|2019}} British journalist and author [[Michela Wrong]] and Filip Reyntjens disagree, with Wrong saying that "the level of invective Kagame dedicates to the Rwanda National Congress, the amount of energy he has expended trying to get Uganda and South Africa to expel or extradite or close down these players, suggests he sees them as a real threat".{{sfn|Reyntjens|2011}}{{sfn|Muhumuza|2019}}
[[File:01.KagameProtest.JWMarriott.NW.WDC.31may06 (157539675).jpg|thumb|Protests against Kagame during his May 2006 visit to the [[White House]]. The banner in the center says the [[United States]] should "stop supporting the genocide in [the] [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DR Congo]]".]]
Kagame's image among foreign leaders was very positive until the late 2000s. He was credited with ending the genocide, bringing peace and security to Rwanda, and achieving development. Since 2010, the international community has increasingly criticized Kagame following a leaked United Nations report alleging Rwanda's support for the rebel M23 movement in Congo.{{sfn|BBC News (XIV)|2012}} In 2012, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and several other countries suspended programmes of budget support to Rwanda, with many redirecting their aid to project-based assistance.{{sfn|Ford|2012}}
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?280860-1/a-thousand-hills-rwandas-rebirth-man-dreamt-it Presentation by Kinzer on ''A Thousand Hills'', June 18, 2008], [[C-SPAN]]}} 
Describing Kagame's personality, [[Roméo Dallaire]] has written that he has a "studious air that didn't quite disguise his hawk-like intensity".{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=66}} American journalist [[Stephen Kinzer]], who wrote the biography ''A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It'' in collaboration with Kagame himself, describes him as "one of the most intriguing leaders in Africa".{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=3}} Despite praising Kagame's leadership skills,{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=3}} Kinzer also cites a personality of "chronic impatience, barely suppressed anger, and impulsive scorn for critics".{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=5}} In an interview with the ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'''s Richard Grant, Kagame said that he sleeps for only four hours per night, devoting the remainder of his day to work, exercise, family, and reading academic texts and foreign newspapers.{{sfn|Grant|2010}} When asked about his reputation for physically beating his subordinates by journalist [[Jeffrey Gettleman]], Kagame said, "I can be very tough, I can make mistakes like that".{{sfn|Waldorf|2017|p=74}}

Kagame has received [[List of awards and honours bestowed upon Paul Kagame|many honours and accolades]] during his presidency. These include honorary degrees and medals from several Western universities,{{sfn|University of the Pacific|2010}}{{sfn|Oklahoma Christian University}}{{sfn|University of Glasgow|2007}}{{sfn|Columbia University}} as well as the highest awards bestowed by the countries of [[Liberia]] and [[Benin]].{{sfn|New Times (II)|2009}}{{sfn|New Times (III)|2010}} The [[Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations]] football tournament has been named the [[Kagame Interclub Cup]] since 2002, due to Kagame's sponsorship of the event.{{sfn|PanaPress|2002}}