Members of Eleven political parties in Rwanda have been urged to scale up the use of social media platforms in their community engagements to ensure their ideologies are better understood. The remarks were made during a one-day workshop organised by the Pan African Movement of Rwanda (PAM) bringing together political organisations in Rwanda on Friday, February 18. Most participants shared the view that older people who are more knowledgeable on history do not use social media platforms whereas young people who have no or little knowledge of their past do exploit them. It is in this regard this training was conducted to bridge the gap between the two age divisions among other benefits. Political expert Ismael Buchanan who spoke on behalf of PAM during the workshop stressed the need to bring together young and old politicians and alert them on the use of social media platforms. “There is still a gap between young and old people because young people use social networks to share their ideas, while older ones do not do so even if they are the ones who are more knowledgeable,” he said. Hence, he added, this training is a good method to help various politicians become more active on social media platforms and make a change. Speaking on the same occasion, Fatou Harelimana, the Chairperson of the National Forum of Political Parties (NFPO) commended this workshop which she said has tipped them on the impact of social media on the members of their political organizations. Harerimana, who comes from the Ideal Democratic Party (PDI) was of the view that it will benefit the whole country at large. “We hope that the parties are going to make some improvements and become more active on social media and we hope this will help the younger generation to learn from their elders,” she highlighted. Members of political parties who were present also commended the development saying that it is another step in the contribution to building their country. Else Twizerimana who represented the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda said the training was long overdue. “Before this training, only one or two political parties were active on social media by sharing their insights on how to build the nation out of all parties but from now I think we are all going to contribute,” he said He added that this will curb the prevalent rumours and fake news spread by unidentified elements.
