Kamonyi, 27 July 2010
Over 80,000 citizens Kamonyi District gathered to show their support to the RPF candidate Paul Kagame. As the crowd sang songs of hope and progress in preparation for President Kagame’s arrival, 78 year-old Michael Bahunda from Rukoma expressed the personal gains that President Kagame’s leadership has brought to his life “the amount of progress that President Paul Kagame has helped all of us attain is immeasurable… after losing 12 of my 13 children, today I no longer live in fear, I have a roof over my head and enough food to feed my family.”
As President Kagame arrived, the people’s joy and eager support reverberated through the field and could be heard from miles away. Dativa Nirere – one of the locally elected leaders, thanked President Kagame for instilling the belief and confidence that women too can and should become leaders. She finished with a Kinyarwanda saying “nawe wirahira uzamuha inka, arahira uwayimuhaye” meaning “you don’t thank those who have yet to fulfill their promise, you thank those who have.”
Amidst the cheering crowd, President Kagame took the stage and started by thanking the citizens of Kamonyi for their hard work and their contribution to Rwanda’s economic development. In response to the crowd’s cheer “ni wowe, ni wowe” meaning “it is you, it is you”, President Kagame responded “nitwe twese” meaning “it is all of us.” He added: “it is all of you here who will work hard and together to achieve the vision of economic development”. He ended his message by congratulating the crowd for the progress that has been achieved, expressing the nation’s joy and pride in the accomplishments of the past seven years and promising that the RPF can and will do more for the development of Rwanda – because the best is yet to come.