EASTERN PROVICE

KAYONZA — Officials from Rwanda’s electricity and water supply utility- ELECTROGAZ on Thursday donated an assortment of food stuffs worth Frw28 million to Rwandan returnees resettled in Kageyo camp.

The food items included: 10,000 Kilograms of rice, 10,000kgs of maize flour, 12,500kgs of peas, 34kgs of Soya beans, 8,000kgs of sugar and 2,000liters of cooking oil.

Handing over the items, John Mirenge, the Director General of ELECTROGAZ urged the group not to despair but remain strong.

"Never lose hope of survival. We have come here to comfort you, and show you the love we have for you,” Mirenge said, adding, bad history of the country underlies the suffering faced by many Rwandans. But it [suffering] is not the end of life, he said.

Mirenge said: "The food we have brought for you will get finished but our love for you will remain,” Anitha Umutesi, the vice mayor of Kayonza district in charge of social affairs said that four months had elapsed without aiding the returnees with any food stuffs.

She attributed food shortages among the group to straying wild animals that reportedly destroyed the crops they grew. They would now be self reliant, she said.

"It is one and half years since these people resettled here. They are now settled and comfortable to be at home. In fact they feel at home. As you can see they have grown many crops including maize, but they have a problem of wild animals which ruin their crops,” Umutesi explained.

To find a lasting solution to the straying animals Umutesi said the government is considering a possibility of either fencing the national park or digging wide trenches around the park. Fridah Mukarumogi, one of the returnees and her colleague, Deonisio Ndushabandi  expressed pleasure in being at home.

"There is no good thing that can be compared with feeling at home,” Mukarumogi said. Ndushabandi recalled how they could listen to Kinyarwanda over the radio while in exile without knowing the state of Rwanda.

"How can one grow up to 50- years of age listening to his own language -Kinyarwanda on radio, but without getting a chance to reach his/her country,” Ndushabandi wondered. They both expressed disappointment with the animals, saying they would be having their own food reserves.

Kageyo located in Mwiri Sector, is the biggest resettlement site for the Rwandan returnees from Tanzania. It is home to about 1,900 people living in 584 families.

They are now fully resettled and can access all basic necessities of life. They so far have a primary school, a medical post and clean drinking water from boreholes.

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