Shanitah Umunyana who was representing Rwanda in the Miss East Africa beauty pageant was crowned Miss East Africa 2021 in a colorful event that took place on Friday, December 24. The 22-year old was vying for the crown alongside 16 other beauty queens from Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, Uganda, Zambia, Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Eritrea among others. All the contestants had spent at least a month in a bootcamp with intense training on public speaking and cultural demonstrations among other aspects. The panel of judges was made up of Rwanda’s former beauty queen, Jolly Mutesi, Miss Linda and Paul Siniga also known as Rio Paul. After marching in front of the audience, the best six contestants were chosen to proceed to the next stage. On the next stage, the six contestants were chosen from Miss Photogenic and Miss Congeniality, after Mauricius Island’s Oceanne Rose emerged the second runner up and Tanzania’s Queen Mugesi was cronwed the first runner up. Announcing the top beauty queen, the judge said, “And Miss East Africa is from President Kagame’s country, Shanitah Umunyana,” as all the crowd welcomed the decision with joyful cheering. Talking to Wasafi TV, Miss Shanitah announced that she is going to start working on her project right away. “This is a victory for my country, Rwanda, and all my fellow colleagues who were with me in this pangeant, I have a project of sensitising women to create innovative products and that’s what I am going to embark on now,” she said. Upon scooping the crown, Umunyana walked away with a brand new Nissan x trail car 2021 version worth $ 44,000 and will get a monthly pay of $ 1,500 which she will get within a period of 12 months. The first and second runners-up also pocketed $ 5,000 and 3, 000 respectively. Miss Shanitah was the first runner up of Miss Rwanda 2018, crowned Miss Supranational Rwanda 2019 and represented the country at Miss Supranational 2019 held in Poland. She also represented Rwanda at Miss University Africa in 2018 and scooped three awards for ‘’The President’s Choice Award”, “Best Video Presentation Award” and “Best Social Work Award”. Miss East Africa is an annual regional event that is back after a 9-year break since being held first in Tanzania in 1996 to 2012. The pageant emphasizes the beauty of the soul, intelligence, talent of women in the East African region and gives young women a platform to discover, improve and ignite self-confidence.
