Southern Province, 15 July 2017 

On the second day of RPF Presidential Campaign, Chairman Paul Kagame travelled to the Southern Province to Nyaruguru and Gisagara.

During his first stop in Nyaruguru, Chairman Paul Kagame addressed more than 100,000 people were gathered at site:” No one believed Rwanda would survive; they believed we would not make it on our own. But it is Rwandans who saved themselves. Everything we have achieved, we owe to ourselves. No one wanted to give us a chance.” Speaking about the unity of Rwandans, he said:” Uniting Rwandans, changing mindsets to believe in ourselves was not a miracle. It took strength, determination and hard work. Those who think transforming this nation can be done by writing in newspapers must be living in another word.”

In the last seven years, Nyaruguru, has seen transformations that brought meaningful change to the people of the area. In terms of transport, where there was no feeder road in 2010, there are 33 kilometres of feeder roads have been constructed, while the number of bridges has increased to 40 from 26 bridges in 2010. Currently, 22% of the households in Nyaruguru are connected to the national grid, from 1.8% in 2010.  There are at least 11.5 km of street lighting from there being none in 2010. In agriculture, 43,167 hectares of land was consolidated from 25,163 Ha in 2010 through the Crop Intensification Program.

Second stop of the day was Gisagara where Chairman Kagame addressed more than 100,000 RPF supporters  gathered to support their candidate. During his speech, he told the supports that:” Nothing is possible without us working together. We will achieve what we want by combining our efforts.”

He added that:”The process of building a new Rwanda over the last 23 years should continue with the RPF working with all Rwandans and other political parties that have chosen to work with the RPF. We are all aiming to achieve the same goals,” he said.

Gisagara has seen considerable development in the last 7 years where 7,564 households have benefitted from the Girinka program and more than a hundred schools were built over the years hosting 386 classrooms for 9&12 years basic education.