Out of 30 ladies, who were competing for the crown of Miss Africa Calabar 2020, Kenya’s Irene Ng’endo Mukii emerged the winner in a ceremony that was held in Nigeria, last year. On October 21, the Kenyan beauty queen arrived in Rwanda where she had to stay 24 hours in mandatory quarantine, and on Friday she was released from isolation. The New Times was able to interview the reigning Miss Africa Calabar 2020 before returning to her country. We caught up with her for a chat at her hotel in Kigali. Excerpts; What brings you to Rwanda? I am here in Rwanda for the auditions to select who is going to represent Rwanda in the upcoming Miss Africa Calabar 2021 competition. We were able to get top five contestants where we will narrow them down to the top three and then whoever will get the most votes will be the one representing Rwanda. How did the auditions go? The auditions were good, but sadly we only had eight contestants. I think it is because the auditions were held on short notice but the ones that came through were really brilliant and beautiful. Ng’endo also visited Akagera National Park. Photo: Courtesy. Their catwalk skills were really good, I think Rwandans should really invest in modeling because you have tall, beautiful and really talented girls. Is this your first time in Rwanda? Which places did you get to visit? Yes! It is my first time in Kigali, Rwanda. I wish I was here longer because there are so many beautiful places I haven’t visited. On Friday I had a chance to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre to pay my respects to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. I have never understood what the Genocide was like until I was there to see for myself. I found the experience to be really amazing for a country to recover from that, especially with what is happening in Africa right now. There is a lot of civil unrest right now in different countries on the continent, gender-based violence in the Southern part of Africa. Seeing what is happening in Rwanda really gives me so much hope to see that people can rise up from such a tragedy. I wish my time at Akagera National Park was longer, because we got there quite late and with the curfew of 10pm, we had to come back early so I only saw zebras. I noticed that Rwanda is a hilly place too, I was either up a hill, down the hill or in a valley. What was your favourite part of your tour? Rwanda is quite green and clean, but my favourite part is that there is no fear of the Rwandan citizens towards the police. I felt so safe especially with the cases of police brutality in Nigeria and Kenya. It is so nice to see that people feel secure around the police. The police here are much more civil when handling the civilians. What challenges did you face? I didn’t know a lot of people in Rwanda, actually I only knew Miss Rwanda Naomie Nishimwe. She was kind enough to show me around. I also faced the problem of language barrier, people kept coming up to me speaking in Kinyarwanda and I was so confused but I had to politely tell them to speak to me in English or Swahili. I have no complaints. I just wish I had more time. How did Covid-19 affect your reign? So normally the title of Miss Africa Calabar comes with a lot of responsibilities and part of it is travelling around Africa advocating for your platform. I wanted to work with marginalised communities in Africa, the communities that are isolated but have rich culture. I want to change their stories because when people look at them, all they see are people who were left behind but I look at marginalised communities with so much pride because they decided to hold onto their culture so well, no matter what. I want to help them where I can, and share their identity and the people that they are with the world. Covid-19 interrupted my plans. There was a lockdown in Kenya and the rest of the world too. So, I had no way of travelling. But I had to be creative with my solutions, I used my social media to reach out to different people where I have been having a virtual tour of Africa. So basically, I take a personality from each country and we talk about their country in general; their culture, their history, their hardships, their achievements and many more. What are your plans after Rwanda? After Rwanda, I am going back to Kenya to hold the auditions for Miss Africa Calabar 2021 and after Kenya, we will be heading to Nigeria where we will have auditions in different parts of Nigeria; Abuja, Lagos and Cross river, the home of the Miss Africa pageant, where I will be spending a month working with the community and addressing different problems like the police brutality by advocating for the ENDSARS campaign. What are your expectations for the next Miss Africa? I am expecting the next crowned Miss Africa to have a heart for Africa. I am looking for a visionary leader who will not only want to make an impact in her year of reign but in the next ten years so that Africa will continue to reap the fruits of what she will sow. What is your message to young African girls aspiring to be like you? My message to young African girls is that they need to understand that they are capable because I think it is something they are not being told enough. They are actually capable of doing great things, not only for themselves or their families, but for Africa as well. They have to challenge themselves and ask what they need to give back to Africa, what they have to do to make Africa great. That is my advice and also my challenge for them. Do you have any plans of coming back to Rwanda? I don’t have any certain dates yet but I would love to visit again. I heard there will be a great game at the Kigali Arena this year and I hope I will get an invite to attend.
