Gasabo and Nyarugenge districts have been ranked by the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission as the least performers when it comes to promoting reconciliation initiatives. The rankings, which were released on Monday night, revealed that the districts of Nyanza, Gasagara, Burera, Gakenke and Kamonyi were the best performers in promoting unity and reconciliation. Among the top 10 districts in the annual ranking also includes Huye, Bugesera, Nyamasheke, Kayonza and Kirehe With the exception of Kicukiro District, which was ranked 14th with a score of 73.5 per cent, the other two districts of Kigali city emerged the last. Fidele Nsayisaba, the Executive Secretary of National Unity and Reconciliation Commission explained that they pursued a two criteria approach to assess the performance of districts. “The first category of criteria which was marked at 80 per cent include how districts integrate unity and reconciliation activities in their planning, how they cater for Abarinzi bigihango (protectors of friendship pact) and their efforts in Ndimunyarwanda dialogues,” he explained. They also assessed how unity and reconciliation month is organised, how peace culture and Ndimunyarwanda programme is scaled up in schools. “We again assessed if they organise competitions related to promoting unity and reconciliation as well as supporting unity and reconciliation clubs in schools and villages,” he said. He added that the second category of criteria market at 20 per cent assessed unique activities that each district undertook. “This assessment was carried out on the above said activities and level of implementation, innovation and how they prepared reports and submitted them to concerned institutions,” he noted. This is the third time the districts are being ranked on the basis of their performance in promoting unity and reconciliation efforts. Nyanza District Mayor, Erasme Ntazinda, attributed the good performance to the collaboration between the district and other partners in implementing unity and reconciliation initiatives. “We were behind in terms of reconciliation barometer and we hope that having performed well in reconciliation initiatives we’ll also improve the rank in barometer,” he said. Anastase Shyaka, the Minister of Local Government, said the least performers must increase their efforts in reconciliation activities. “We realised that there is huge room for improvement in Kigali city having seen that two districts out of three have poor results. There are districts which have improved compared to last year while others have retrograded,” he said. The least performers include Nyarugenge, Gasabo, Gatsibo, Rubavu and Nyabihu districts. Among the 10 least performers also include Rutsiro, Musanze, Rwamagana, Nyaruguru and Rusizi districts.
