A country, deepending on its history, will be very sensitive to certain things. Also, remember that its leaders are bred from that history.
Here is a look at a sister dictatorship of Kagame's i.e. Uganda.
Uganda
Govt: Dictatorship
president: Yoweri
History: Several military coups, dictators and civil war
The current president has ruled for 34yrs and is still going strong. His style of leadership has kept the country peaceful and the economy growing.
Pros:
He has kept the country peacefull for practically all his years in power except for kony in the North who has also been defeated and apparently is hiding out in DRC
Economy: you can view a chart of Uganda's economic growth rate here:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=UG
Note how sharply it rose after 1986 when M7 came to power and mostly stayed in the 6% range or higher.
Aids: Uganda has been credited with one of the best attempts to stem the spread of aids on the continent.
Cons:
No democracy: Uganda had a no party system (which is a one party system in disguise). But we in kenya know what a multiparty system can lead to if not properly managed. Here we have each tribe forming its own party then teaming up with parties created by other tribes. This is not how a multiparty democracy should work as it should be based on issues, not tribe. So, given Uganda's history of civil war, a no party system was probably the best
For me, I think Uganda has done well so far. Personally, I would rather have peace and economic growth rather than democracy and civil wars.
In Rwanda's case, kagame has done alot of good for that country in terms of economic growth and other aspects of the country. But he is a dictator at the end of the day and the country is extremely sensitive to its past of genocide. Thats why when musicians start singing about the genocide that may inflame ethnic tensions, we have a result like this. I dont think he was killed on Kagame's orders parse, but maybe by an overzealous cop who went overboard.
Even in democractic nations like Germany, if you start singing that Hitler is great or if you even display a Swastika, you can be jailed. This is an example of another country that is extremely sensitive to its past.
Each country must find a way to remain united and move forward. For some countries, democracy will not work while for others, given their current state of development, it may be a utopia which can only be achieved after years or even decades of dictatorship.
Countries like Russia may split up if made truly democratic just the USSR split after attempts were made to democratize it.