UK’s foreign aid mystery as former Rwanda government aide admits ‘you’ll NEVER know’

BBC NEWSNIGHT / GETTY

A former aide to the Rwandan president has said that how British aid is spent in Rwanda is unknown

Speaking about the UK aid programme, David Himbara told BBC Newsnight: “The British aid is the worst aid because basically Britain dumps taxpayers’ money into Kagame’s budget.

“So what happens to British aid, you will never know.”

Andrew Mitchell, former International Development Secretary, admitted that foreign aid to Rwanda had briefly been suspended while he was he a Government frontbencher.

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He told Newsnight: “I suspended it and I restored it. And it has been restored not as general budget support, but as specific support to agriculture and eduction.

“We know in Rwanda that the quality of the way our money is spent is yielding quite remarkable results. So, for example, in the last three or four years, Rwanda has managed to lift more than a million people out of poverty.”

Tony Blair once described Kagame as a “visionary leader” and Bill Clinton once called him “one of the greatest leaders of our time”.

GETTY

Andrew Mitchell said the British Government follows how taxpayers’ money is spent in Rwanda

But Mr Himbara revealed he is worried about democracy under the Rwandan president as the nation heads to the polls today.

The former government aide turned critic said: “It cannot be a fair election because the people who could have challenged him have been blocked from competing.

“Almost all the political parties are behind him and he himself announced a few days ago that he will win by 100 per cent. So that’s exactly what will happen.

GETTY

Tony Blair once described Paul Kagame as a “visionary leader”

“In the early elections some of the opposition leaders were imprisoned. They remain in prison. One of them was killed and others fled into exile.”

He added: “As we were getting closer to the elections, the place started to get a lot more violent. I decided that that it was not for me. I fled and I went to South Africa.”

Millions of Rwandans will cast their votes later today in the country’s third presidential election since an estimated 800,000 people were killed in a genocide in the country 23 years ago.

Only two opposition candidates have been allowed to stand against him in this week’s poll, and neither is expected to make any significant impact against the incumbent Kagame.