President Paul Kagame has tasked citizens, teachers and community educators, local officials and other opinion leaders in the Western Province to ensure that children remain in school, residents access healthcare and good governance is delivered.

The Head of State delivered the message yesterday while meeting thousands of residents of Rubavu District at Umuganda Stadium as he concluded his three-day Citizen Outreach tour, which took him to the Northern Province’s Gakenke District on Thursday and ended in Western Province’s Rubavu District yesterday.

At the last leg of his tour, Kagame reiterated what he had mentioned in Gakenke and on the second day of his trip in Rubavu District’s Mudende sector as well as during his meeting on Friday with opinion leaders in Rubavu district where he insisted that good governance needs to be at the centre of people’s development.

"I came here to see you so that we can talk about development and good living conditions; that’s what we need,” Kagame told thousands of Rubavu residents at Umuganda stadium. 

In his address to Rubavu residents, he emphasised the role of education and warned them against child labour while also highlighting the good results of taking children off streets and empowering them with skills they need to create jobs.

"Those who used to be street children are now employed and have become successful.” Kagame said after talking about the case of graduates of Iwawa rehab centre who are now employed in the city of Rubavu as carpenters among other jobs.

He warned the residents against employing children to do certain chores instead of sending them to school.

"Child labour is illegal. We are going to start holding parents accountable who let their children drop out of school to get involved in child labour,” Kagame said.

He also said that officials need to be more involved with children’s education in their communities as well as teachers to ensure that no children who deserve to be in school is deprived of that right.

"Here in Rubavu you have the chance of having many young people among yourselves and you should take advantage and empower them with an education that will help them to create jobs instead and be part of Rwanda’s transformation,” Kagame said.

In the area of healthcare, the president said that more residents in Rubavu District need to subscribe to the community-based health insurance scheme locally known as Mutuelle de Santé.

He also urged them to bring their leaders to account to bring about good governance and called on citizens to speak out against those who embezzle money and other resources like cows meant for the poor.

Another area on which he encouraged the residents to focus on is increasing both quality and quantity of production from farming and apiculture.

The President also promised that the government will continue to provide them with the infrastructure they need such as electricity to add value to their agricultural produce and roads they need to transport their goods.

As people who live near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the President said that Rubavu residents should always strive to build good relations with their neighbours and always make use of the economic potential that their Congolese neighbours have.

While the mayor of Rubavu, Jeremie Sinamenye, said that there are more hotels than tourists in the area, making it harder and harder to get customers, the president encouraged the residents to diversify their businesses.

The president’s three-day trip in Gakenke and Rubavu was part of his routine citizen outreach programs across the country during which he meets and interacts with citizens, focusing on issues of governance and development.

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