RPF Candidate and chairman Kagame said that the country’s critics don’t understand the uniqueness of Rwanda.
Incumbent President and candidate of ruling party, Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi), Paul Kagame says critics of Rwanda’s model of democracy don’t understand the uniqueness and context of the country, daring them to attempt it in their own countries and see how it works.
The RPF Candidate was addressing hundreds of thousands of residents of Ngoma and Kirehe districts, in Eastern Province, in Kirehe town, where he said that some people claim that Rwandans are forced to attend RPF Inkotanyi rallies but dared those who claim the same to also try and see if they can success.
“There are those who will see you, as many as you are, and happy, and they say we forced you to be here but if forcing people produces a happy crowd like this, we can only encourage them to also do it where they come from and see the outcome. They can also go and use force. They don’t understand our uniqueness.,” President Kagame told the excited crowd in the district bordering Tanzania and Burundi.
Chairman Kagame said that Rwanda has a unique political context and historical background, strengthened by unity and integrity which many foreigners don’t grasp.
He pointed out that the past years saw the country work its way out of the effects of bad leadership that characterised the country for many years and RPF Inkotanyi came to change that and get rid of the ‘bogus’ leadership that misled citizens for many decades.
He pointed out that for many years, Rwandans endured ‘bogus’ leadership and the RPF-Inkotanyi and allies came to change that.
“We have rebuilt our country, leaving that history past us, including the ‘bogus leadership’. The elections we are going into in the next two weeks mean that we are going to exercise our democratic right and vote for leadership that is not incompetent, and that is RPF Inkotanyi and the allied parties,” the RPF candidate told residents of the Eastern Province.
“The past 30 years have brought in transformative change, maybe some of you were babies or were too young to know this, but today you are big enough to understand what I am talking about,” the incumbent Head of State said, reflecting on earlier testimonies on schools, health facilities and infrastructure that have been built in the two districts over the past three decades.
President Kagame said that he is confident that Rwanda will always prevail because it has its youth born over the past thirty years who are ready to defend the country as well as able leadership under RPF, emphasizing that there is nothing impossible when people have the will to achieve something.
He pointed out that the country has registered progress in many areas, whether it is education, health and security but what is more important today is doing what needs to be done with urgency and a desire to achieve results quickly and get the country where it should be in terms of development.
“Our objective is to move fast. We don’t wish to see anything blocking this progress, anything that can set back our security and stability. If there is an attempt to block us, we deal with you effectively,” Kagame said.
President Kagame was welcomed by an ecstatic crowd in Kirehe.
He called on the residents of the districts which are near Tanzania to take advantage of the many opportunities available and produce more, not only for local consumption but also export, telling them that the government will also continue to play its role in terms of putting in place the necessary infrastructure such as roads and electricity to stimulate that growth.
He told the young people on Ngoma and Kirehe that all eyes are on them because the Rwanda’s future is pegged on them and they should strive to live to the expectations of the country, but making the right choices in life, including seeking more knowledge and education as well as having a sense of responsibility.
He pledged RPF-Inkotanyi’s commitment to support the initiatives of locals, whether it is in terms of putting in place the right policies, but also facilitating trade and other initiatives that can ensure that the residents of the two Eastern Province districts take full advantage of the opportunities at their disposal.
Emerithe Uwingabire, a resident of Nasho Sector, Kirehe district, said that for many decades, they lived in what used to be a semi-arid area with minimal agricultural productivity until the current government came and introduced an irrigation project that became a gamechanger.
“We had land but we could barely harvest enough to feed our households. Often, families would move from here to other places in the Province which were more fertile. As we pondered what to do, the government the irrigation project,”
Uwingabire says that an irrigation project initiated by the government restored agriculture productivity.
“Before the irrigation project came, I had land but it was useless because often my household would go hungry, the same applied to many farmers,” Uwingabire said.
The Nasho Irrigation project, which is supported by the Howard Buffett Foundation, has turned around the agricultural fortunes of the district which often battled long droughts.
Uwingabire said that they were encouraged to move into a model village and combine land for the irrigation project to work better and at the time she was suspicious of how the project would work. Soon enough, their lives were turned round after the irrigation project started paying off.
Sandra Musabwasoni, a senior lecturer at the University of Rwanda (UR), who was the chief campaigner in Kirehe, said that for many decades, the two district which lie in what used to be known as Gisaka, had been isolated for many years, but under RPF, they have been brought back on the national map, highlighting infrastructure, education, unity and reconciliations as some of the gains registered over the past three decades.
