2008 will go down for Rwanda as the year of the woman. The country registered growth in many areas; economic, political, social and of course patriotism, mostly propelled forward by the women folk.

It was a year that awakened in many what had for some time been just a tinge of self esteem, but all that became history when thousands were mobilised because one of their own had been targeted.

Rose Kabuye was not a soft target as those who sought to haul her to a Paris court all the way from Germany had thought; neither were they prepared for the backlash that was manifested not only on Rwandan streets, but in the European capitals as well.

The coming together as one was reminiscent of the liberation war era when people were mobilised from the four corners of the earth to bring this country back on track.

The French and Germans should have known that you don’t just grab a rose bush anyhow; you have to be careful of the thorns.

Politics were also reinvented last year when another flower was plucked from the Rose garden in the pock-marked walls of Parliament.

Rose Mukantabana and her crew of ladies took over the reins of power, setting a world record of being the first country in the world to have a female majority in Parliament.

The new Speaker of the House might not have a military background like her namesake, but the Bullet and bomb-scarred building should not scare her, all it needs is a facelift figuratively and literary.

The men who had been in charge for the last 14 years had failed to see the necessity of working in a neat environment and patch up the bomb-out building, but at least they did not litter the House floor with unfinished bills.

So Mukantabana will not have much use for the broom she brought in her baggage all she needs to do is just call in the builders, and please, please, tell them to leave out the pink paint, after all do we need it when it was the year of the Rose?

Ends