Rusesabagina’s detainment was not enough to keep Rwanda from participation in the Africa Summit in Washington this week, a fact that did not escape the attention of Jeffrey Smith, the founding director of Vanguard Africa, a nonprofit focused on free and fair elections and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa.

“If the Biden Administration is sincere about building on ‘shared values’ and advancing equitable relationships with African citizens,” Smith wrote in a recent Time Magazine op-ed, “then investments beyond retrograde strongmen like Paul Kagame would be an ideal place to start.”

Some human rights activists have criticized the attendance of Mr. Kagame at the summit. Writing for Time this week, Jeffrey Smith, an activist who promotes democracy in sub-Sarahan Africa, said: “Rwanda’s president stands out as particularly cunning and ruthless in his full-throttle consolidation of political power back home.”

In an article penned for the Foreign Policy journal, Jeffrey Smith, director of non-profit Vanguard Africa, and Tutu Alicante, executive director of non-profit EG Justice, claimed last month more than 100 individuals, including lawyers, judges, and civil society and political opposition activists, had been arbitrarily detained, amid reports of torture and killings.

Jeffrey Smith, the head of Vanguard Africa, a nonprofit organization that works on issues related to free and fair election and ethical leadership, said Obiang uses the election to show how popular he is in the country but instills fear in his people to remain in power.

“There’s a significant – and some could argue growing – chasm between rhetoric and reality,” says Jeffrey Smith, the founder of Vanguard Africa, a US consultancy that represents African opposition figures such as Uganda’s Bobi Wine and Martin Fayulu of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “I think that’s always a problem, because then America’s detractors can point to that very void, and they’re not wrong about that.”

According to our information, Martin Fayulu will ask members of the American Congress and the administration of Joe Biden that Washington closely follow the evolution of the situation of this strategic country of central Africa and contribute to guarantee free and fair elections in 2023. The United States had played a key role in the outcome of the December 2018 presidential election by supporting the victory of Félix Tshisekedi despite the fact that numerous irregularities had been denounced. Fayulu is determined to prevent history from repeating itself.

The major issues that Fayulu is expected to address in Washington, DC include “the current domestic situation, the many humanitarian emergencies, economic and political challenges, as well as the environment as it pertains to next year’s elections, which he views as very critical,” says African democracy activist Jeffrey Smith. Smith is helping to organize the trip as part of his firm Vanguard Africa’s contract to manage an “independent free and fair campaign” in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

18 months since his defeat in Uganda’s tainted presidential election, Bobi Wine is the one touring the world as his global stardom reaches new heights.

With elections scheduled for next year, Zimbabwe’s opposition and pro-democracy organizations are expressing concerns about recent appointments to the country’s electoral commission. For example, Jeffrey Smith, founder of pro-democracy outfit Vanguard Africa, believes free and fair elections in Zimbabwe remain elusive.

On the show this week, Marie-Noelle Nwokolo and pro-democracy activist Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa, interrogate the role and relevance of election observer missions in light of Kenya’s recent election. Listen in on a candid conversation complementing processes in the quest to build substantive democracies.