Over 40 youths aged between 18 and 26 years turned up for MaishaPlus East Africa 2016 auditions.
Over 40 youths aged between 18 and 26 years turned up for MaishaPlus East Africa 2016 auditions.
The auditions to select those who will represent Rwanda in the regional reality TV show took place at Mulindi Japan One Love in Kimihurura over the weekend.
The annual reality television show, based in Tanzania, was founded by Masoud Kipanya to empower the youth in East Africa.
Hopefuls will be asked a number of random questions by the judges to choose the winners. Out of the forty, only two males and two females will be chosen to represent Rwanda in this year’s MaishaPlus East Africa.
Judges, Tidjara Kabendera, a presenter at Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA), and Lucky Nzeyimana, from Royal Television, focused will also focus on intelligence and agility of individual contestants.
The competition will last for eight weeks and the lucky winner will walk away with Tz shs30m (about Rwf10m).
Kipanya said, initially, the show was tailoured for only Tanzanians but later added the other East African countries ‘since youth in East African region share the same challenges.’
The show, that will air daily during the season on Azam Television in Tanzania, will also be aired in Rwanda on Family Television.
The four winners from Rwanda will join their peers from Kenya, Burundi, and Uganda in Tanzania which is the host country for the live casting on August 28th.
The show, themed "Innovation”, will take place in a chosen isolated setting in Tanzania and is meant to have a village setting where the contestants will be challenged to do tasks like building huts, among other activities, to survive.
Kipanya said the tasks are meant to shape the youth to be able to cope with life.
"In most of the schools today across East Africa, students are only taught the theory part of life and not the practical part of it. When a student leaves school, he/she barely knows how to survive in this tough environment we are living in today,” says Kipanya
In the next season, countries like DR Congo, Mozambique and Malawi are also expected to be part of the show.