‘Mister and Miss Elegance Rwanda’ is a beauty pageant contest that was recently introduced by Claudette Uwamahoro, a Belgium-based Rwandan model, who has also featured on many catwalks and participated in a number of modeling contests in Belgium like the Miss Africa Belgium pageant, Super Top Model Belgium competition, and Miss Fashion among others.

The Rwanda’s first-ever ‘Mister and Miss Elegance’ took place on January 9, at Hôtel des Mille Collines by Kempinski in Kigali, and saw Chris Junior Rutagengwa and Nasra Umutoni crowned Rwanda’s ‘Mister and Miss Elegance 2016’ respectively.

We caught up with the two and they shared their journey, experience and plans.

Who’s Chris Junior Rutagengwa?

Rutagengwa is a 22-year-old, born in Bujumbura, and raised in Kigali. He’s a fourth year student at Mount Kenya University in department of information science.

"I was born in Burundi but raised in Rwanda; I did my primary school education at Kibagabaga Primary School and completed my secondary at Saint Peter's Secondary School "Igihozo” in Nyanza,” he says.

Rutagengwa, who is also an independent model, believes that he deserved the crown because though the competition was challenging, he worked very hard. 

"It wasn’t an easy contest, but we all fought hard to win it so it’s not something that came to me easily. We spent a number of nights practicing and fortunately we managed to display all skills we had in style during the grand final,” he notes. The male model says that the competition was also a good opportunity and platform to make his projects popular. 

"I had presented my project about managing youth unemployment when I joined the competition. My mission to join was to come up with the platform that connects young talented individuals to established entrepreneurs, investors, IT specialists and other experienced people so that they can interact and share ideas but also expose themselves to potential investors,” Rutagengwa says.

The winners were each awarded €250 which Rutagengwa says is not much but is a good start if you have the passion and the vision to do something.

He has participated in a number of fashion shows like Kigali Fashion Week, Rwanda Cultural Fashion show, and Abryanz Style and Fashion Awards in 2012 that took place in Kampala. 

editorial@newtimes.co.rw