Staff and students of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) Friday visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center to honor victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

The visit was in line with Rwanda’s 22nd commemoration of victims who perished in the genocide.

JKUAT Community organized the event to stand with the other Rwandese to light the torch of hope and remember to ensure that the genocide and its ideology are uprooted from Rwandans and across the world.

After laying wreaths on the mass graves, Dr. Wilson Cheruiyot, the director of JMUAT Kigali campus told students and lecturers that visiting the memorial is an occasion to strengthen their contribution in fighting genocide and its ideology.

He pledged the university’s support in working with other institutions to foster peace building, fighting divisionism and discrimination to ensure total healing. He promised support to the genocide survivors.

"On behalf of JKUAT fraternity and on my own behalf, we feel the same pain from the dark moments that this country went through. The tragic loss of innocent lives should never happen again,” he said adding that JKUAT whose vision is global excellence in training, research and innovation for development, will continue to extend its support to genocide survivor students, providing them with quality education that would improve their lives and contribute to the social and economic transformation.

He urged students to take the advantage of the social media in fighting genocide ideology and denial; urging lecturers to serve as good role models and strive to produce good intellectuals with constructive knowledge.

Cheruiyot observed that the commemoration should be a reminder on shared commitment to respect humanity.

"We must note that this commemoration has a huge magnitude in its role in building a better country,” he added.

JKUAT has introduced different public lectures, where they invite some public speakers from the government or any other organization for public lecture on how to commemorate, and showing students that reconciliation is possible even after such horrible atrocities.

The JKUAT students were called upon to join the Association of Genocide Survivor Students (AERG) so that they can stand together in promoting reconciliation and general development in the country.

In an exclusive interview with The New Times, Cheruiyot said that genocide deniers have not witnessed the aftermath of genocide and its skin-deep scars and called upon such people to visit Rwanda to enable them understand that tragic history. "I can say that when we talk about genocide, the outside world might not understand what took place but when somebody comes and visits Rwanda, they can have picture of what happened. The memorial tells it all; I wish all deniers could come and see this evidence, they would go and spread a message of what happened.”

Javan Kayonga, the guild president at JKUAT addressed the community with an emphasis to youth who should know that commemoration is important and urged them to learn from experiences and make sure the genocide ideology is thoroughly defeated.

The message of the JKUAT is "Remember, unite, renew”

About JKUAT

JKUAT Kigali Campus, located in Kicukiro District, was established in September 2013, offering a blend of Agricultural, Technological and Management based academic courses. These programmes run throughout the year on both fulltime and part-time bases.

All programmes are Senate approved and teaching and examination is as defined  by the JKUAT senate regulations. With a strong team of qualified members of staff drawn from JKUAT, other reputable  institutions of higher learning in Kenya and other parts of the world, all staff members who teach must be approved by the University Senate. 

JKUAT Kigali Campus prides itself as a university of global excellence in training, research and innovation for development, and quick to adapt its learning delivery platform to rapidly evolving learning environments. This has resulted in the creation of a vibrant ambience on campus that engages students in a variety of learning activities.

The cultural ethos of the institution is rooted in its philosophy: character is life. At JKUAT Kigali Campus, strong emphasis is placed on theory and practice, and on character formation, aimed at producing well rounded and well grounded graduates.