It is widely believed that following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which claimed nearly one million lives, Paul Kagame led a group of rebels known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)—based in neighboring Uganda—to oust a murderous regime and usher in an era of peace and stability in Rwanda. In fact, this small landlocked nation in Eastern Africa is today often held up as a model developmental state and a poster child for Western aid.

However, in her recently released book, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, British writer and journalist Michela Wrong debunks the myth that Kagame’s Rwanda is an island of peace and stability in a conflict-prone region. The book, a searing indictment of Kagame’s 27-year rule, reveals the dark underbelly of a leadership that uses fear to hold on to power, and is highly intolerant of dissent.

This is the fourth in a series of books on Africa by Wrong. Her debut book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, describes the final days of Zaire’s dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. It’s Our Turn to Eat, her book on a major corruption scandal in Kenya and the whistleblower who exposed it, is a critical examination of a post-colonial state driven by ethnic politics and myopic interests.

Wrong started her journalistic career as an Africa correspondent for Reuters and the Financial Times. Her books have been praised for their unflinching honesty and clarity about a continent that is often painted in broad brush strokes by Western journalists, with little nuance or context. Wrong talks to Rasna Warah about what motivated her to write Do Not Disturb, and why she believes this story needed to be told.