Born in 1995, Imaniriho will be the youngest legislator in the fourth parliament.
\nStill single, Imaniriho was born in Bwishyura Sector of Karongi District where her family lives. She is the last born of four children who have been raised by a single widowed mother.<\/p>\n
Imaniriho has got a Bachelors degree from University of Rwanda from where she graduated in 2017.<\/p>\n
Speaking to IGIHE, Imaniriho could not hide her happiness of having won a parliament seat to represent the youth with 52% of the votes. She says she is ready to work with others in making and passing laws that serve interests of Rwandans and following up on implementation of Government programmes. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnother thing is to listen to the voice of the youth, understand their problems and partner with institutions that we can work with in identifying and addressing youth challenges at the right time,\u201d she said. Imaniriho did not go into details of the youth problems saying that she will work with others for advocacy to get solutions for those she will be told by the youths themselves or those she will identify.<\/p>\n
Legislation will be Imaniriho\u2019s first engagement in the working world since she graduated in 2017. Unemployment is one of the most biting problems faced by the Rwandan youth Imaniriho will be representing in parliament. Unemployed youth (between age of 16 to 30) register a whopping 21% according to numbers by Rwanda National Statistics Institute.<\/p>\n
Imaniriho was confident to submit her bid to get a seat in parliament with no other prior experience in high leadership duties.<\/p>\n
Monthly Umuganda activities and the citizens\u2019 meetings are, she says, the big leadership classes she attended. These nurtured her spirit of serving the country. She submitted her parliament candidacy and she won.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very happy to have won. I think I will represent them effectively,\u2019\u2019 she promises.
\nIn few words, she advises her fellow youth to have good behaviors that will help them have a bright future and participate in the development of their own country. \u201cThey should participate in the government\u2019s programmes as required, ask for advice and accept to be corrected,\u201d she advises.<\/p>\n
Imaniriho further tells the youths that they should not fear doing anything including politics. \u201cYoung people should set their fears aside and understand that they are able. There is a quote that goes; \u2018We are not too young to have responsibilities.\u2019 This, she says, should catapult them into serving their country . She also says; \u2018the youth are the country\u2019s force that builds fast\u2019.<\/p>\n
Imaniriho believes that nothing is impossible for a committed and a willing heart. <\/p>\n
Besides the 23-year old Imaniriho, the Rwandan youth will as well be represented in parliament in the next five years term by Ernest Kalisa, 28.<\/p>\n
Not that other members of the august house are that too old, but Imanriho takes the trophy of being the youngest servant. Of all the recently elected 80 MPs making the Rwandan Lower Chamber of Deputies, Fidele Rwigamba, 68, is the oldest. He is serving a second term in parliament representing Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At 23, Clarisse Imaniriho was, almost two weeks ago, elected Member of Parliament, Rwanda, and, with utmost excitement, is waiting to be sworn in as a lawmaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69],"byline":[2931],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homehighlights","byline-mathias-hitimana"],"bylines":[{"id":2931,"name":"Mathias Hitimana","slug":"mathias-hitimana","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2931,"name":"Mathias Hitimana","slug":"mathias-hitimana","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38172"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38172"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}