RPF-Inkotanyi presidential candidate, Paul Kagame, yesterday campaigned in Southern Province’s Muhanga District where he called on over 100,000 supporters gathered at the Muhanga stadium to vote for RPF to continue on the journey of unity, development, and security.

"It is unity, it is development, it is security,” he said as he described for the voters what voting for the RPF’s candidate in the forthcoming elections is about.

Kagame thanked Muhanga residents for turning up en masse at his rally and said that the next task is to fast-track the country’s journey to prosperity.

"We are determined to achieve transformation. We have made progress but it is not enough. But what we have achieved so far shows that nothing is impossible,” he said as his supporters cheered.

Kagame also thanked eight other political parties that have supported him in the presidential elections.

Muhanga resident Césarie Kantarama, a farmer, shared her testimony of transformation from a stay-at-home wife to a successful businesswoman.

She thanked Kagame for having encouraged people like her to have confidence in themselves and stand up to rebuild their lives.

"You brought us back our value and we have changed our mindsets. Today, we feel more confident. I am a widow but I am a very confident woman and I work to develop my family and country,” said the local entrepreneur who has specialised in cassava growing.

"Our candidate, you are the one and only (one),” she said, stating her eagerness to vote for the candidate come August 4 and urging other residents in the district to do the same.

The Governor of the Southern Province, Marie-Rose Mureshyankwano, told Muhanga residents that Kagame is a unique leader and rallied all their support around him.

"We have a special leader,” the former MP said, highlighting some of the current government’s good policies such as building roads, rolling out electricity in the country, and improving healthcare, among others.

Genocide survivor Therese Nyinawankusi, who lost three children in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, said that Kagame saved her from death and that she is absolutely ready to vote for him.

"I will vote for Paul Kagame because he saved us during difficult times. The plan was to exterminate us all but he stopped it. Voting for him is very crucial given the big role he played in our lives,” she said.

The man who stopped the Genocide is also credited with nurturing unity and reconciliation in the country whose future was uncertain as a result of the Genocide and a long history of discrimination policies.

That promotion of unity is the single most important reason why 40-year-old Viateur Minani will vote for Kagame.

"He should keep promoting the unity of Rwandans because he has been able to do it while so many other leaders had failed. For me, its his biggest achievement,” he said, adding that unity is important because it makes it possible for Rwandans to live happily.

"Life is a lot better when Rwandans live together and get along well with each other,” Minani told The New Times as he sat at Muhanga stadium waiting for the RPF candidate.

In this area, which is historically known for being the very first home base of politics of division as leaders like former president Grégoire Kayibanda preached Hutu majority power from here in the 1960s, history has turned the page and today residents uphold the importance of unity.

The RPF candidate, who concluded yesterday’s rallies in Muhanga after campaigning in Western Province’s Ngororero District, will today campaign in Nyarugenge District, Kicukiro District, and E Bugesera District.

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