President Kagame: “I Will Not Be President in 2017”
The International Reporting Project (IRP) and 12 senior U.S. editors and producers traveled to Rwanda from November 6-19, 2011, to learn more about this important country.
The Gatekeepers concluded their trip by meeting with Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, to talk about the tiny but complex Central African country. In this excerpt, the president insists that he "will not be around as President come 2017."
"I did not want to be President," he said. "I am not the President just because of privilege or anything that people may associate with the position. I am President because circumstances propelled me into that." He continued, "But it's not something I am dying for. I cannot be here and say I must be President for life."
Audio excerpt by Rebecca Davis and Melody Wilson. Photos by Tom Paulson, John Schidlovsky, Sue Horton, Amy Hollyfield, Louise Lief, Nicholas Aster, and the office of Paul Kagame.
More from this Reporter
- Announcing IRP’s 2015 Fellows
- What Nepal’s Earthquake Felt Like From a Hotel in Kathmandu
- Apply Now for Reporting Fellowships
- Meet the IRP Fellows to Nepal
- Event: Sarah Wildman, Author of “Paper Love,” to Speak on February 5
- Apply for Reporting Trip to Nepal by February 16!
- Indian Baby Showers Add Iron-Rich Nutritional Gift
- Visit to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives
- Technology in Agriculture
- The Economics of Agriculture in Tanzania
- Down by the Bay in Dar es Salaam
- New Media Reporting Tools: What to Use and How to Use Them
- In India, Daughters-in-Law Encouraged to Speak Up
- The Zambian Ministry of Health
- Zambian Chief Supports Sanitation
- Macha Research Institute
- The State of Journalism in Zambia
- The Role of Technology in Health
- Planet Books, a Zambian Literary Destination
- Photos: Safe Love in Zambia
- Photos: N’gombe Integrated Clinic
- Photos: N’gombe Compound
- Love Games and Safe Love Clubs
- TB in Zambia: Challenges, Solutions, and the Way Forward
- Health Services in Zambia: Challenges, Solutions, and the Way Forward
- Safe Love Club
- Health and HIV/AIDS in Zambia
- Reporting on Global Health in New Media
- Reporting on Global Health: The 2013 IRP New Media Fellows
- Health Access in Mumbai’s Resettlement Communities
- Biometric Technology Helps TB Patients in Bhiwandi, Mumbai
- Mumbai’s M Ward in Photos
- Marking 15 Years, IRP Focuses on New Media, International Journalists
- Building a Healthy Digital Archive
- Hungry for Change
- Staying Healthy in Africa’s Largest Slum
- Stories From Saudi Arabia
- President Kagame: Our Ambition Is to Receive No Foreign Aid
- President Kagame: Another Genocide in Rwanda Is Unlikely
- President Kagame: “The Catholic Church Has Not Done Enough” After the Genocide
- President Kagame: “There Is No Other Impediment to Media Development” in Rwanda
- President Kagame on Divisionism and Genocide Ideology Laws
- Reports From Rwanda: The 2011 IRP Gatekeeper Editors Trip
- Backpack Journalism: Crossing the Boundaries of Media
- Insight Into Indonesia: The 2011 IRP Gatekeeper Editor Trip
- Traditional Dayak Dance