The African Leadership University (ALU), on Sunday, September 3, scooped the East African Universities’ Debating Championship, a competition that brought together 17 universities from four East African countries. The debate contest was founded in 2016, aiming at bringing together university students across the EAC member countries to share ideas, knowledge and information while celebrating the diversity and cultural richness of the region using debate as a tool of engagement. ALSO READ: We hope to initiate debate plans in all schools in Rwanda in 10 years, says iDebate co-founder This year’s edition was the fifth, and took place in Kigali, featuring three universities from Kenya, two from Uganda, three from Tanzania, and nine from Rwanda. The discussions were on the motion “Making youth the wheel of people-led economic community.” Kenya's Strathmore University and United States International University-Africa, as well as Tanzania’s University of Dar-es-Salaam and Rwanda’s ALU were the four institutions that reached the semi-finals. ALU beat them to the championship, while the United States International University and Strathmore University emerged the first and second runner-up respectively. Smart Israel, a second year software engineering student at ALU, praised the competition at the debate, as he highlighted the benefit of taking part. “We believe there is a mindset shift that occurs when we engage in such a discourse. It was a really interesting debate because we got fair engagement from the other side of the debate, but more importantly for us is that usually after debates the knowledge you acquire stays with you,” he noted. Topics for such debates are formulated around: regional peace and security, regional trade and economic development, climate change and conservation, and gender equality within the region. ALSO READ: Mental health: Young activists take the discussion to schools The topics were chosen in an attempt to ensure that young people fathom the benefits and intentions of the economic community in an even participatory way but also to enable them to develop a sense of ownership by becoming the informed EAC ambassadors in their communities and institutions. “The main reason for the collapse of the EAC in 1975 was because discussions were often done by the leaders alone. The current EAC wants ordinary people to take the lead, but they can’t do that without information,” said Simon Peter Kalisa, the head of Debate Education in Aspire Debate Rwanda. “The competition was put in place to assist the youth get information about the EAC, where it is so that they can hold their leaders accountable,” he added.
