Rwanda High Commissioner to Kenya, Ambassador James Kimonyo has called on Rwandan youth living in Kenya to play a more active role in Rwanda’s development.
He made the remarks during Rwanda Youth Forum, an event that brought together 500 members of Rwandan youth who live in Kenya. The event took place at Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi.
The Ambassador showed how Rwanda has been able to achieve a lot across all sectors and how that has raised the bar even higher for Rwandans to aim at achieving even more.
In his presentation that aimed to enlighten the youth about how far Rwanda has come in terms of Unity and Reconciliation, Ambassador Kimonyo explained how Lack of avenues for a peaceful political change in Rwandans led to the launch of a liberation struggle in 1990 by the RPA Inkotanyi under the leadership of ‘our current President His Excellency Paul Kagame’.
“The liberation struggle aimed at promoting national unity, fostering democratic dispensation, ensuring security for all Rwandans, building an integrated and self-sustaining economy; and repatriating and resettling all refugees. This has guided our political systems to date and youth has been at the forefront of the liberation and rebuilding the country.” Kimonyo said
The High Commissioner cautioned the youth against the detractors especially those in the camp of fugitives and renegades who continue to preach divisive politics.
“The leadership of our country has created conducive business environment coupled with opportunities especially for the youth; it’s important that you put these two to good use than wasting time on things that can never improve your live,” Kimonyo noted.
During this forum Brigadier General Joseph Demari took participants through what patriotism means to Rwandans and why Rwandan youth and why youth has a big role to play.
“When we started the liberation struggle, our commander in Chief President H.E Paul Kagame was in his early thirties and the rest of us were in twenties but that did not stop us from toppling the regime that had a highly trained and equipped army. This is an indication that youth have all it takes to take the country to another level in terms of development but this can only be possible when our youth is patriotic which I believe most of you are.” Brig Gen Demari said.
During this forum, participants were inspired by a personal story of 35 year old Kenyan Mr. Bernard Kioko, Founder and CEO of BernSoft LTD who was born to a very poor family that could not afford school fees for his university studies.
Mr. Bernard resorted to teaching himself everything to do with a computer and later became soft were engineer who in his career has achieved a lot in this area including world renown software’s such as Safaricom Mpesa instant notification platform and Safaricom M-ticketing platform, the famous Live TV interactive SMS platform that allows views to read scrolling messages on their screens and others.
Bernard has now been able to earn millions because he earns a percentage amount on each message sent under these platforms.
Mr. Niyitegeka Bonavanture, the owner of famous VIRUNGA Express Ltd talked to the youth how in his early days of the university hired a mini bus, which he used to transport passengers from Butare to Kigali and back. This later made him able to buy his own mini bus that later facilitated him to buy a Coaster. He later acquired a loan, which he used to acquire more buses, and expanded his business to various parts of the country. Bonavature now owns fifty buses.
Apart from Transport, Virunga also does Courier Express services and Money Transfer Service with 30 Offices countrywide and four offices in the region (Goma, Kampala, Nairobi, and Bujumbura).
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