A strange monument seemed to have put Rwanda’s social media scene on fire until explanations were given. It is a giant steel woven palm raised in the air erected within the compound of Kigali Convention Centre and it will be unveiled tomorrow to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day. It will also coincide with the fourth edition of the International Anti -Corruption Excellence Awards which is sponsored by the Qatari government. To choose Kigali as the venue of the 4th ACE Awards is a vote of confidence in the country’s efforts to fight corruption, a task that it has carried out with success. Corruption is a serious threat that it has led the president of a regional country that is rife with it to organize a march against it. Whatever the results of the march will be is a matter of taking it with a pinch of salt, but the vice is truly present in our region and beyond. Just this week, the mayor of a regional capital was in the news after taking law enforcement officers on a country-wide chase after an arrest warrant was issued against him for alleged corruption. Fighting the vice is not just making empty statements but getting one’s hands dirty and going for the jugular. As long as we have sacred cows among our leaders and elite who have the protection of state instruments behind them, it will be a waste of time. It will simply give the likes of Aljazeera to enough fodder to expose them.
