A LEGENDARY MUSICIAN, a former Miss Rwanda winner, two media personalities, and a communications practitioner make up the all-female panel of judges that will decide on which girls proceed to the next stage of Miss Rwanda 2021 contest. The auditions kicked off virtually on Saturday February 13 and will run until Friday, February 19. The judges that organisers revealed on Monday February 15, include Maria Yohana Mukankuranga, a traditional music icon, a custodian of culture and a champion of women emancipation. She is currently a coach for the national ballet Urukerereza and was part of the jury during the Miss Rwanda 2020 Pre-selection event. Miss Rwanda 2016, Jolly Mutesi and showbiz journalist Michèle Iradukunda also make the cut for the third time in a row. Organisers also brought in new faces in this year’s edition including Emma-Claudine Ntirenganya, a media personality with 15-years’ experience in the production of a reproductive health-related radio talk show. Another new-comer on the Miss Rwanda jury is Pamela Mudakikwa, a Communication Specialist who uses her communication skills to engage with different audiences on issues ranging from personal development, to strengthening family values and culture, building capacity and empowering the youth. Responding to concerns on why organisers chose to stick with a panel of jury consisting of only women, Meghan Numwiza told The New Times that it is more important to look at the capacity the judges are using to select best performing contestants during the ongoing beauty contest’s auditions. “We chose them either based on the experiences they have in this pageant or because their capacity meets what we want from them. So we trust them and we believe they will make good and fair decisions during this exercise,” Nimwiza said. Nimwiza hinted that the contest still has more stages, in the pre-selections or the grand finale, during which men could appear on the panel as long as they meet the organisers’ criteria. The jury’s duty After registering, aspirants were given model questions/topics to discuss and then each contestant recorded a three-minute video while doing presentations on the given topics and then sent the video back to organisers. The videos were forwarded to the panel of judges to analyse the answers. During the audition selections, the judges convene to follow and analyse the contestants’ presentations in videos before each of them grades a contestant. During the auditions, people are able to follow their favorite contestants auditioning on KC2, the national broadcaster’s entertainment channel. Provincial auditions winners will be announced on February 20, just a day after virtual auditions, that will be aired live on RTV and Miss Rwanda social media platforms.
