The Office of Ombudsman of Rwanda and Delegation of the European Union to Rwanda organised an Anti-Corruption and Anti-Injustice campaign that included a Citizens Mobilization by Music performance, that was held on Saturday, July 10. The show was broadcast live on Rwanda Broadcasted on RTV where award-winning Hip Hop artist, Emery Gatsinzi, mostly known as Riderman, gave an outstanding performance. He was introduced on stage by the host, Luckman Nzeyimana, aka Lucky, who reminded viewers about the dangers of corruption and injustice and that they may call 199 or send an SMS on 1990 to report any forms of corruption. Riderman was then joined on stage by Symphony Band and they started the performance with his song, ‘Padre’ and went on with another, ‘Inyuguti ya R’ which is a message against corruption and injustice. During his performance, Riderman was in the company of rising singer Siti True Karigombe, who has been backing him since 2015 and Karigombe expressed his gratitude to Riderman. “Since 2015 I have been sharing stages with Riderman and backing him for that long is something big to me. The secret behind this is ‘discipline’ and ‘good chemistry’ and collaboration that we have together. I appreciate this and I won’t take it for granted,” Karigombe told The New Times. As a hip hop artist who is mostly known to sing about justice, Karigombe told The New Times that sometimes they face corruption issues such as getting power plays on some TVs and radio stations. Riderman also talked about how humbled and honored he is for being the first artist to perform in ‘Anti-Corruption and Anti-Injustice Campaign.’ In an interview, he had with The New Times he said that he had been fighting against corruption through his songs and all interviews he happens to do, and that he never keeps quiet about the matter. “Corruption is a very big and bad issue that hinders development and it exists in our music industry as well as other sectors. It is therefore a must for all Rwandans to fight against corruption. Being the first to perform in this campaign really means a lot to me as an artist. Our government is doing a lot to put an end to corruption and the best results are coming,” Riderman said. He added that some results prove that corruption goes down in various sectors, “The country is so wide and the best is that we keep fighting for the good results. We won’t stop until we make it a corruption-free country.”
