Bill Gates Is Laundering Paul Kagame’s Soiled Image — No Reputable Business or Political Leader Should Be Seen Embracing Kagame at This Particular Moment

Bill Gates has no shame.

PORTLAND, Maine — July 20, 2026 — The Rwanda National Congress (RNC) strongly condemns Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ ongoing engagement with Rwandan dictator General Paul Kagame. Gates is currently visiting Rwanda, where he is showering the regime with gifts in the form of funding for health initiatives, agricultural transformation, artificial intelligence, and digital public infrastructure aimed at advancing Rwanda’s development priorities.

At a time when Kagame’s international standing has sunk to new lows among credible business and government leaders, such high-profile endorsement risks whitewashing a record of serious human rights abuses and regional destabilization.

The United States has recently imposed sanctions on Rwanda’s military and on Kagame’s right-hand man, General James Kabarebe, for their involvement in atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and for the systematic looting of the DRC’s mineral wealth.

“The Rwanda National Congress condemns Bill Gates’ opportunistic behavior in Rwanda in the strongest terms,” said Dr Etienne Mutabazi, the Secretary General of RNC. “No reputable business or political leader should be seen embracing Kagame at this particular moment. Such partnerships only embolden authoritarianism and undermine genuine efforts toward democracy, human rights, and regional stability in Central Africa.”

About the Rwanda National Congress (RNC)

Founded in 2010, the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) is a democratic political organization dedicated to forging a new Rwanda anchored in peace, unity, freedom, justice, and genuine democracy. The RNC relentlessly fights for accountable leadership, the protection of human rights, national healing and reconciliation, and transparent institutions that genuinely serve all Rwandans — not just the ruling elite.