GAKO -President Paul Kagame has called upon capable Rwandans to freely join the military and other security organs in service of the nation.

The President made the call yesterday while presiding over the pass-out of 591 RDF cadet officers at the Rwanda Military Academy in Gako, Bugesera District, Eastern Province.

"Gone are the days when the army was perceived as a profession of people who fail to get work elsewhere…life in the military is now the same in other professions and we shall strive to improve it further,” the President said.

He said that women should not be left out in joining the military or other security organs.

Among the graduands were ten women. And the overall best cadet officer of the course was a woman, Jacqueline Uwamahoro, who during the function, received recognition from the Head of State. 

The officers who passed out with the rank of Second Lieutenant had been on the course for the last eight months.

"Normally, a cadet course lasts longer but this was shorter because the graduands were already serving in the military….most of them have been in military for the last thirteen years,” Col. Saddick Kamili Karegye, the commandant of the academy said.

Cadet courses usually last between twelve and thirteen months.

Kagame urged the officers to live up to the oath they took upon being conferred.

He said: "The phase that is now underway is striving for development and we need independence if we are to achieve this.”

He said that the ranks to which the officers were elevated put them in position to be major players in that process.

The course was started by 595 cadet officers but four dropped out for various reasons, which the academy commandant didn’t specify.

Twenty-eight of the graduands are from the Air force.

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