President Paul Kagame has said that dignity and economic prosperity is the next stage of Rwanda’s liberation. The Head of State was speaking in Rweru in Eastern Province’s Bugesera District, where top government officials and other dignitaries joined residents in celebrations to mark the 22nd Liberation Day, yesterday.
President Paul Kagame has said that dignity and economic prosperity is the next stage of Rwanda’s liberation.
The Head of State was speaking in Rweru in Eastern Province’s Bugesera District, where top government officials and other dignitaries joined residents in celebrations to mark the 22nd Liberation Day, yesterday.
The Liberation Day marks the day the Genocide against the Tutsi was ended by the Rwanda Patriotic Front and the beginning of Rwanda’s journey of transformation.
President Kagame described the end of the Genocide against the Tutsi as the end of the armed struggle but described the journey ahead as another phase of liberation.
"The next stage of our liberation is to shape our own future and liberate ourselves from any obstacles that stand in the way of our development,” he said.
"True liberation means dignity, it means no one should ever decide for us who we should be,” Kagame added, emphasising that Rwandans have the right to determine their own future.
"As Rwandans, as Africans, we must be the ones to own and shape our future,” Kagame told thousands of residents in Bugesera as well as government officials and councillors in local communities.
"Dignity is not cheap. You have to earn it, stand up and fight for it,” Kagame added.
In Rweru, President Kagame and officials from different government institutions, including the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) inaugurated the Rweru Integrated Development Model Village.
The project includes a school with 17 classrooms, a health post, a model village with connection to electricity water and internet, a modern market (agakiriro) and a 12-kilometre road from Kagasa to Batima.
The model village is now the home for 104 families that were relocated from high-risk zones of Mazane and Sharita islands in Bugesera District.
Referring to the model village as an example of what Rwandans deserve, the Head of State described the next stages of liberation as fighting poverty and building a nation where access to basic needs is the norm and not the exception.
"Having access to drinkable water, electricity and a home to sleep should not feel like a miracle. It is your basic right,” he said.
The new residents in Rweru thanked the President for the new homes and pledged to take care of them as well as rear cows and use pieces of land they were given by the government to fend for themselves.
"We were living in a terribly remote place at the island. Development seemed impossible,” said Elvania Nyiraminani, who was relocated from Mazane island.
She delivered thanks to the President on behalf of all the residents for helping them liberate themselves.
The Government designated "together we prosper” as the theme for the 22nd Liberation Anniversary.
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