For regular users of the internet and particularly social media fanatics, you have probably encountered photos of a large steel hand-like structure making rounds on different platforms. Many have been wondering what it means, the intention behind the structure and who’s behind it. Well, Rwanda will on Monday, December 9, host the fourth edition of the International Anti-Corruption Excellence Awards (ECE) 2019 in partnership with Qatari Government. It has become a tradition for Qatar to sponsor a monument that represents the international community’s solidarity and commitment towards the fight against graft. The steel hand structure, currently situated at the Kigali Convention Centre gardens, is a sculpture depicting the urgency of stopping corruption and saying ‘no’ to the crime. Johnston Busingye, the Justice Minister whose ministry is coordinating the event’s activities confirmed the sculpture will be inaugurated on Monday, the same day the world will be marking the International Anti-corruption Day. “The monument whose photos have been trending on social media is a hand sculpture, which symbolize transparency,” he said. Each year, alongside the ACE Award ceremony, the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center (ROLACC) in Doha, Qatar, commissions a commemorative statue to be built in a prominent position in the same city as the award ceremony. Busingye said it was designed to symbolize the values of the ACE Award. “The hand is open, to symbolize nothing to hide from the world. It is transparent to symbolize the transparency that winners are hoping to instill in their communities,” he noted. The hand sculpture was designed by Ahmed Al Bahrani, a prominent Iraqi artist. The Qatar-sponsored sculptures have been inaugurated before in Malaysia, Geneva, and at the UN Office at Vienna (UNOV) in Austria were the awards have previously been hosted. Meanwhile, the awards ceremony is expected to bring together 600 participants, among them winners of the Awards and the Board members of the ACE Award. President Paul Kagame is also expected to host his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. Busingye says Rwanda was chosen to host this year’s Award event because of “President Paul Kagame’s anti-corruption credentials and the Government’s institutionalisation of the fight against corruption.” In the latest Global Corruption Perception Index released earlier this year by Transparency International – a global corruption watchdog – Rwanda was ranked the fourth least corrupt country in Africa behind Seychelles, Botswana and Cabo Verde.
