July 4th is a day that reminds survivors of the Genocide against Tutsis that the sun rose again after 100 days of darkness. It’s a day that reminds Rwandans who were living as refugees that they got a place to call home again. It’s a day that is here to teach the young generation what patriotism is all about: accepting to sacrifice your life for your country. To me, as one of many post-genocide generation fellows, this year’s Liberation Day is a reminder of a speech that defined RPF’s ideology, the future of Rwanda and birthed Inkotanyi’s uniqueness, “UBUDASA” I prefer to call it. Twenty-nine years ago, in 1992, right before deploying the 600 RPA soldiers who were accompanying RPF’s politicians to the former CND building, the then RPA commander and current President of Rwanda H.E Paul Kagame, reminded the soldiers an ideology that must define them. Being different from those they were fighting. “If you want to fight the thieves and you are a thief as well, what difference does that make?” he asked them. Today, those young men and women in uniform who chose to stay on the path of serving Rwandans, are justified by their acts that they are indeed different from those they defeated, and it is reflected in what Rwanda is today; a country where every citizen, regardless of their height or nose, religion or region, has equal rights differently to how it used to be . Twenty-seven years ago, Inkotanyi gave Rwandans a place to proudly call home, and have committed themselves to being at the forefront in building this country. Through the Rwanda Defence Force, each year on Liberation day Rwandans get a well wrapped gift; an Integrated Model Village consisting of fully equipped family houses, primary and secondary schools buildings, an early childhood development centre, a health centre and a farming project. This has become the new normal, and I love to see it. I love to see the Rwandans who were once deprived of their rights of having a country, denied their rights to education, and faced other several consequences of the divisive politics now building modern villages for Rwandans from vulnerable families. The same ideology they had during the liberation struggle is still alive today. They were taught that Liberation is about what Rwandans will get after, not what an individual or a certain group will benefit from it; one of them once shared. However, there are still those who were breastfed hatred and took part in slaughtering over one million Tutsis during the Genocide, who have now been given a voice, overseas under the cover of “freedom of speech” to tarnish our liberators’ image. There are those who are also very adept at trying to convince the world that the RPA started the Liberation struggle only and only to seize power, but they ignore that facts are stubborn. As time goes by, those who are willing to make profound analysis come to realize that such falsehoods are pushed by anti-Rwanda campaigners for their selfish reasons. To those who made a pact with genocide culprits and anti-Rwanda diehards: an ideology based on including every citizen will always defeat an ideology based on hatred. The forlorn hopes of taking power through waging wars against Rwandan citizens will never come true. The same RPA that won on the battlefield twenty-seven years ago is now stronger than ever. The blood of innocent Rwandans will never be spilled again.
