On Day 2 of the presidential campaigns, the RPF Chairman and flag bearer in the presidential elections, President Paul Kagame on Saturday made his first stop in Nyaruguru District in the Southern Province.
Here, he assured the nearly 100,000 people who attended the rally that he will not disappoint Rwandans after they put trust in him.
“You have put your trust in me. I will never disappoint or fail you,” he said, to the excitement of Nyaruguru residents.
During his speech, he said that those who criticize Rwanda are ill informed about what Rwandans are and what the country stands for.
“No one believed Rwanda would survive; they believed we would not make it on our own. But it is Rwandans who saved themselves,” he said.
For the ill-informed critics, Chairman Kagame said that we cannot stop them.
“What we can do is to use that criticism to renew our strength to build transform our nation.”
Speaking about Rwanda’s transformation, the Chairman said that no one else could have put where the country is today but for Rwandans themselves and that Rwandans learned this lesson the hard way.
“Everything we have achieved, we owe to ourselves. No one wanted to give us a chance,” he said.
He added: “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.”
About Nyaruguru
Nyaruguru, which was once an isolated poor region, has seen transformation that has brought meaningful change to the people here, even going by the different testimonies that were given at the campaign rally.
For instance, concerning road infrastructure, there was no feeder road in 2010 and today 33 kilometres of feeder roads have been constructed, while the number of bridges has increased to 40 from 26 bridges in 2010.
Currently, 22 per cent of the households in Nyaruguru are connected to the national grid, from 1.8 per cent in 2010. There are at least 11.5 kilometres of street lighting from there being none in 2010.
In agriculture, 43,167 hectares of land was consolidated from 25,163 hectares in 2010 through the Crop Intensification Program.
Additionally Nyaruguru has approximately 43,167 hectares of radical terraces, up from 25,613 in 2010.