How much money do President Paul Kagame’s overseas trips cost? Do these trips add value? These questions were evidently prompted by a photograph of Paul Kagame attending a Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid Champions League match on 24 May 2014.
I obviously do not have access to data to address the “cost” question, but can attempt an approximate calculation based on several factors as indicated below.
Let us begin our estimation by taking a quick stock of the KNOWN presidential trips from January to May 2014. The President made 11overseas trips in 5 months which is on average 2 international travels in each month as follows:
1) President Kagame addressed United Nations Economic Social Council on Sustainable Urbanisation – New York, 27 May 2014. (The Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid Champions League match on 24 May 2014 was I suppose watched on the way to this UN conference);
2) President Kagame witnessed the signing East African railway by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and President Uhuru Kenyatta, Nairobi, 12 May 2014;
3) President Kagame spoke at World Economic Forum on Unlocking Job Creating Growth – Abuja, 8 May 2014;
4) President Kagame spoke at Stanford Global Speaker Series – San Francisco, 25 April 2014
5) President Kagame participated in the 9th Broadband Commission meeting held in Dublin, Ireland, 23-24 March 2014;
6) President Kagame addressed students during a lecture at Tufts University in Boston – 22 February 2014;
7) President Kagame hosted by Dr. William Froming, Provost, Palo Alto University – San Francisco, 14 February 2014;
8) President Kagame participated at African Innovation Summit in Cape Verde, 5 February 2014;
9) President Kagame spoke on Peace and Security at African Union Summit – Addis Ababa, 30 January 2014;
10) President Kagame addressed MDG Special Event at World Economic Forum – Davos, 23 January 2014;
11) President Kagame gave a key speech at Kenya governors’meeting in Naivasha – 20 January 2014.
How do we estimate the cost these 11 international trips? Let us recall that Rwanda publicly stated in 2010 that to transport Kagame, the government charters top range executive jets from RPF’s Crystal Ventures on commercial basis. Top of the range executive jet used is said to be Gulfstream 550, and according to Forbes, the hourly rate for chartering this aircraft is US$8,640.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2013/02/13/thirty-amazing-facts-about-private-jets/
Now if we average each of the 11 trips to last at least a week (the trips to the US are much longer, while obviously the ones in Africa are short), our estimation formula would be 11 trips X 7 days each X by 8 hours a day X US$8,640 per hour for the Gulfstream. The estimated cost to the taxpayer would be US$5.3million equivalent to Rfr3.6billion. We may round off the dollar figure to US$6million (Rfr4billion) to account for accommodation, ground transportation, and various delegates including ministers, protocol and security personnel who travel on commercial airlines.
David Himbara