Kagame best East African President, Museveni trailing

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda is ranked the best East African Head of State in pursuing regional integration. His Ugandan counterpart President Yoweri Museveni is ranked fourth out of the six East African Community Heads of State.

A survey conducted by Karibu East Africa Presidential Awards between 2015 and 2020 and launched on December 27, 2021 by Gen Mugisha Muntu, Uganda’s former army commander and former member of the East African Legislative Assembly, indicates that Kagame won with 57.4% while Gen Museveni secured only 36.3%.

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya came number two with 46.1% amidst tight competition from the late John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania who emerged third with 45.6%.
Salva Kiir of South Sudan and the late Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi performed so poorly. Nkurunziza emerged second last with 25.3% while Salva Kiir came last with 20.6%.
Karibu East Africa Presidential Awards used three layers of assessment. The research organization first conducted opinion polls from December 2018 to March 2019. And out of 190 respondents 56.8% voted in favour of President Kagame. Only 4.2% voted in favour of President Museveni; 16.8% for Kenyatta; 8.9% for Magufuli; 21.1 for Nkurunziza and only 1.1% for Salva Kiir.

The research organization in addition conducted a media analysis, internalizing media reports and news articles from various media within East Africa from 2015 to 2020. This survey focused on five areas including Infrastructure, trade, governance, intra-EAC relations and then peace and security. In intra-EAC relations, the focus was on how each Head of State related with his neighbours in East Africa. Each area was assessed out of 20.
Out of this survey, the late Magufuli emerged the best with 75% while the late Nkurunziza of Burundi was the last with 27%. Kenyatta came second with 63%; Kagame third with 55%; Museveni fourth with 53% and Salva Kiir fifth with 40%.

In this survey (media analysis) Museveni performed exceeding well in the area of peace and security (15 out of 20) and intra-EAC relations (15 out of 20). He got 10 out of 20 in infrastructure, 8 in trade and 5 in governance.
Kagame also excelled in peace and security with 15 out of 20. And he was awarded 10 out of 20 in each of all the other areas including infrastructure, trade, governance and intra-EAC relations.

Magufuli excelled in four out of the five areas that were assessed. He was awarded 18 out of 20 in peace and security, 17 out of 20 in infrastructure 15 out of 20 in trade and 15 out of 20 in governance and 10 out of 20 in intra-EAC relations.
Kenyatta excelled in infrastructure (17 out of 20) and governance (15 out 20). He was awarded 13 out of 20 in peace and security; 10 out of 20 in trade and 8 out of 20 in intra-EAC relations.
Salva Kiir was awarded 10 out of 20 in each of the following areas; trade, and intra-EAC relations and peace and security. And was awarded 5 out of 20 in governance and infrastructure.
Media Analysis in details

Nkurunziza, who trailed his colleagues, had 7 out of 20 in trade and infrastructure; 5 out of 20 in intra-EAC relations and governance and 3 out of 20 in peace and security.
President Kenyatta excelled in infrastructure development and governance whereas President Magufuli excelled in infrastructure development, trade, governance and peace and security.
President Museveni excelled in intra-EAC relations and Peace and security, he also performed fairly in infrastructure development.

President Salva Kiir performed averagely in trade, intra-EAC relations and peace and security.
President Kagame excelled in peace and security and performed averagely in all the other areas.
President Nkurunziza performed poorly in all areas.
In the third phase of assessment of the East African Community leaders, Karibu East Africa President Awards considered the 2020 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) for its East African Barometer (2015-2020) as a scientific survey.
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance, put together by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, constitutes the most comprehensive dataset measuring African governance, assessing African countries on a whole spectrum of governance dimensions, from security to justice, to rights and economic opportunity, to health and environment.
Published since 2007, the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) assesses governance performance in 54 African countries over the latest available ten-year period.
It provides a framework and dashboard for any interested audience to assess the delivery of public goods and services and public policy outcomes in African countries.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation is not a primary data collector. Data is collected from 40 independent sources.
The new Ibrahim Index of African Governance has undergone an in depth-review in 2018-2020. The new updated conceptual framework reflects the evolved governance landscape and is based on strengthened indicators. Governance performance is not meeting Africa’s citizens’ growing expectations. Public Perception of Overall Governance has deteriorated over the last ten years, at twice as quick a pace since 2015, and registers the lowest score of the past decade in 2019.
2020 Ibrahim Index of African Governance for East African Community partner states

Finally, the research results of the three layers were totaled together to come up with average marks for each East African leader.