{Seventeen recipients of the Unity Awards are due to be recognised today at a function in Kigali.}
The event is expected to be graced by President Paul Kagame. The ceremony will be preceded by the 8th Annual Forum of the Unity Club, to be attended by the First Lady Jeannette Kagame.
The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission in conjunction with the Unity Club earlier this week released a list of the 17 people set to receive the Unity Awards.
The recipients, locally referred to as Abarinzi b’igihango or protectors of friendship pact, will be recognised for their works.
These are Rwandans or foreigners who have shown unmatched deeds in promoting national unity and reconciliation at the climax of Rwanda’s dark periods starting from the 1990 liberation struggle, the multiparty period, Genocide and post-genocide, resurgence war and during Gacaca courts.
According to (Rtd) Bishop John Rucyahana, the president of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, the recognition of Abarinzi b’igihango is meant to inspire others and to pass their legacy to the next generations.
“The recognition of their deeds is not only meant to please them but also to motivate the youth through lessons they draw from their acts,” he said on Tuesday
Rucyahana said unity and reconciliation in Rwanda was on course.
“We are not perfect, but we are doing well,” he said, explaining that Abarinzi b’igihango are protectors of Rwanda’s dignity and its future.
“They must hold Rwanda’s values, patriotism, fight against division, injustice, genocide and its ideology among other exploits that help in building unity and reconciliation,” he said.
Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa, the vice chairperson of the Unity Club, an organisation that brings together current and former members of the government and their spouses, said the people selected must have accomplished their acts individually.
Unity is and will be the foundation of Rwanda’s progress, she said, adding that all ‘we do would be futile without unity.”
The awarding ceremony will take place during the 8th forum that will bring together members of the Unity club and the civil society.
The event will coincide with the launch of the Unity and Reconciliation Week during which different activities that aim at strengthening unity and reconciliation will be carried out.
The forum will run under the theme: “the protectors of friendship pact embracing Ndi umunyarwanda.”
Since January, the process of selecting the award winners started with 6,000 nominees from across the country.
Among them, 1,816 were selected to compete at sector level. Later, 230 of them were selected at the district level, before the final 17 were selected at the national level.
The selected 17 people that include five Catholic priests will be given a certificate of merit and medals, among other awards. Some are alive while others have since passed on.
The chosen people also include Grace Uwamahoro, who was only 13 years old in the 1994 Genocide when she saved a baby left by its mother who later succumbed to her wounds.
Moments before she breathed her last, the mother pleaded with the passersby to take the baby, but nobody took heed of her. With bravery, Uwamahoro took the baby with her as she fled to the DR Congo.
She resisted the pressure of her relatives who told her to leave the kid and raised her as her own.
The New Times
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