 His Excellency was sworn in as for a seven-term mandate on 12 September 2003 after being elected in the first ever democratically contested multiparty elections held in August 2003.
Paul Kagame was born in October 1957. In 1960, he fled persecution and ethnic pogroms that were to characterise Rwanda in subsequent decades, and became a refugee in Uganda.
Paul Kagame was among the first 27 men who, together with Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, launched a five-year liberation war in Uganda in 1980. He served as a senior officer in the Ugandan army between 1986 and 1990 during which time he attended a staff and command course at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, USA.
In October 1990, Paul Kagame returned to Rwanda after thirty years in exile to lead the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) in the struggle for the liberation of Rwanda.
On 17 April 2000, Paul Kagame was unanimously elected President of the Republic of Rwanda by the Transitional National Assembly. President Kagame was awarded the 2003 Global Leadership Award by the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO), in recognition of his role in uniting and reconciling Rwandans and in promoting peaceful solutions to the conflicts in the region.
In July 2003, President Kagame was elected 1st Vice President of the African Union during the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit held in Maputo, Mozambique.
In September 2005, President Kagame was awarded the Andrew Young Medal for Capitalism and Social Progress by Georgia State University in the USA; and in the same month received the African National Achievement Award by the Africa America Institute in the USA.
President Kagame has been married to Jeannette Nyiramongi since 1989. They have four children.
President Kagame is a keen tennis player and football fan.
|
