Kigali is an amazing city built with stunning views found on its many beautiful hills. Rwandans are very welcoming and proud of how far their country has come over the past two decades.

But there is another, darker story of modern Rwanda. President Paul Kagame, the international donor communities erstwhile partner-of-choice, has in some respects done an incredible job leading the nation back from the 1994 genocide. Central Kigali is very modern in many ways: clean, orderly, efficient, with all of the amenities of an international urban centre. Other parts of the city are much less developed, but are still impressive compared to the chaos of cities I have experienced in other developing countries. But Kagame’s government has also employed a heavy-handed approach to muzzle dissent in the media, undertaken forced relocation to facilitate development, and engaged in misguided command-and-control economic initiatives. Combined with the widespread destitution of Rwandans outside of the capital and the Kagame government’s destabilizing efforts in the DRC, it is a mixed record to say the least.

This is the paradox of Rwanda. The post-1994 story is inspirational in some ways, yet my time in Kigali left me with the uneasy feeling that it was a city built for show, to paper over many deep issues. Kagame, despite the enormous progress under his leadership, risks undermining Rwanda’s continued development by consolidating power through suppression and a refusal to set the stage for elections to name a successor. I believe the risk is real that a post-Kagame democratic Rwanda could revert to voting along ethnic lines, inflaming the tensions that fed the violence 20 years ago.

Rwanda is a fascinating country with a warm culture that faces formidable economic, social and political challenges. I hope to be able to return at some point and will keenly watch its development.