Last week on Friday, the City of Kigali (CoK) commemorated the genocide victims particularly the former staff of what was known as préfecture de la Ville de Kigali (PVK) during and before the genocide against the Tutsi.

The evening of the commemoration was preceded by a walk to remember and paying tribute to the over 250,000 genocide victims laid at the Kigali Genocide Memorial (KGM) in Gisozi, where they laid wreaths to the graves.

The main commemoration event took place at the city’s official headquarters, and featured the evening of motivational speeches, musical performances, testimonies, and the lighting of the flame of hope.

The function opened with prayers from different church leaders in Kigali city including Sheikh Musa Sindayigaya of Islam and Martin Uwamungu of the Catholic Church, among others.

Gervais Dusabemungu, the former staff member of the City of Kigali delivered some short history of what characterised the leadership of the city during and before the genocide. He also reviewed a new book of Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho, a former prefect of the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

The new book of this perpetrator presents the hatred along ethnicity and denies some of the facts against the genocide.

Col. Renzaho who was the ‘Lord Mayor’ during the genocide, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2009 for his role in the Genocide.

"By the time the genocide was taking place, most of those who we called our friends were the first to call us their haters. The leadership of Kigali city during the genocide was completely full of hatred, with leaders leading the citizens along their self interests. We really suffered a lot that people like Renzaho took the first initiative to exterminate us (former leaders),” said Dusabemungu.

Meanwhile, the Ibuka commissioner, Jean-Pierre Nkuranga said; "Today as we are sitting here to commemorate our people that perished in 1994, we envision a great future in front of us. This is because we have simply seen the light where it seemed to be darkness. We think that we’ll never ever allow our people to take hold on the worst things that our country experienced.

"For us as the survivors, we thought that surviving wasn’t only enough. We didn’t know that life will be better as it is today. However, through the leadership of the new government, we developed the hope for the future. The lives of Rwandans have completely changed, infrastructures have been re-established, standards of living uplifted, and other developments are being realized. This is what we are celebrating today.”

Nkuranga pledged, on behalf of the Ibuka, to continue providing relevant support to help the survivors and build a strong relationship in uniting the Rwandans to make sure what happened will never happen again.

"We pledge to sacrifice our efforts as survivors to do everything possible to build our nation and help our people to get themselves from poverty. Let’s remember and fight against genocide ideology,” he noted.

The evening of commemoration featured Dieudonne Munyanshoza and Maria Yohana Mukankuranga, who also performed to comfort survivors. Munyanshoza performed songs like Twibuke and Imfura zo Kumugote.

The newly-elected mayor of the city of Kigali, Monique Mukaruriza noted that remembrance and commemorating is very important especially when it comes to giving respect to fellow Rwandans who were brutally killed during the 1994 genocide, and also reviewing the peace-building journey.

"This is the moment we share the stories of our beloved ones, those who we lost during the genocide. It’s therefore important to always remember because it reminds us of what we passed through and gives us the energy to work tirelessly to sustain what we have achieved. I take this moment to encourage those who lost their families, friends, and all Rwandans across, to work hard and for unity in their honour,” she noted.

Mukaruriza said that only through collaboration and valuing the human being, it’s the way to fight the genocide ideology and to develop and promote sustainable development.

"Some people across different parts of the world are still denying the genocide, but we need to address this issue through coming together. This is something that needs collaborative efforts. The government does a lot but it can’t itself deal with the issue of the mindset; it starts at the personal level,” she said.

Adding that, "we need to come out and tell the world what happened to our country through research, writing books, the use of all the tools of technology like the social media to fight the genocide ideology.”

The city also donated ten cows to the most vulnerable genocide victims.

On the other hand, the Vice President of the Senate, Jeanne D’arc Gakuba, who was also the guest of honor encouraged the survivors and other Rwandans who lost their people during the 1994 tragedy to work for peace, unity and development.

Her remarks focused on educating people why and how they should fight against the genocide ideology as one of the prevalent issues. She also noted that the government has put strategic measures to educate people especially the youth.

"I’d first say that as the country there’s a step that we have made in terms of influencing our people regarding the genocide. Many peoples’ mindsets have changed although there’s still a long way to go. I thank God Rwandans have managed to heal the physical and inner wounds to build their nation,” she said.

Gakuba also urged the young people not to take all what the country has achieved for granted, but rather safeguard it and fight anything that would take it.

"A lot of deliberate efforts have been summoned in rebuilding our country to achieve all we have achieved. Let’s therefore preserve them, and fight against the people who don’t wish our country well. Let’s use the resources we have to build our country,” she said.

"The political will to promote and develop our country, the vision to build sustainable economy and helping our people to move from one step to another, this is all what we should aim at. To those who still deny genocide, I’d also say they are failures,” she added.

Gakuba also stressed the need to set up friendly policies based on governance that promote inclusiveness among the members of the society, and also create connection between their leaders, something that the cabinet is currently doing.

"You can never change the mindsets of people without approaching them at their local levels. This is why it’s very critical to have the governance that is based on conducting dialogues with citizens at their local levels,” she said.