Paul Kagame Quotes

When we need to protect this country that has suffered for so long, no one is helping us, I don't need anyone's permission to do what we have to do to protect ourselves

It's very clear that wounds are still deep but “Rwandans, I thank all of you for refusing to be defined by this tragic history.

Rwanda has transformed itself, unity is the foundation of everything we try to do. For the beginning we understood the need to cultivate and preserve the spirit of oneness to give us hope for a better future

Our hearts are filled with grief and gratitude in equal measure. We remember our dead and are also grateful of what Rwanda has become. (7 April 2024)

So, Rwanda has transformed itself. Unity, being together, is the foundation of everything we try to do. From the beginning, we understood the need to cultivate and preserve a spirit of “oneness” to give us hope for a better future.

One lesson that our country learnt is to transform challenges into opportunities and also use so little to do a lot. There is nothing Rwandans cannot overcome through unity, hard work, and perseverance.

We are polite people, we are humble people, we know where we come from, we know who we are, we listen, but at the end of the day, I want to assure you, that for as long as some of us are still here, what I’m saying is just what is going to happen, that we shall have to live our lives, live the best way we can just like other people elsewhere in the world, and they have no right, and we will not even accept, that dictating to us how we live our lives can happen.

To our young people, we expect you to take Rwanda even further ahead, beyond what we have ever imagined.

Africa’s story has been written by others; we need to own our problems and solutions and write our story..

There is no peace for some and not for others. We all need the same peace. We will continue to stand for historical clarity regarding our situation, and will never accept to be painted as something we are not.

Remember that in the time of need when we needed every help we could get, the world turned its back on us. The message is ‘you are on your own’, So we should learn to be on our own and I think we have learnt enough.

There is no hiding place for you from these very facts of our history.

Shortcuts and temporary fixes can not resolve this issue. There has to be a comprehensive solution that deals with root causes, in the medium and long term, which should guarantee lasting peace for all the peoples of our region. This is important for all of us, without exception.

Genocide denial is a dangerous and deliberate attempt to block the truth, we must fight revisionist and ideologist because they are easily passed on from generation to generation and that is how history repeats itself.

You can run but can’t hide. There is no hiding place for you from these very facts of our history. So even those who have their time to say whatever they want to say, they will say it. Maybe they will do many things based on that as well. But the fact is, they cannot find a place to hide.