MUKONO-UGANDA-The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) officers have described the Late Mzee Haajje Gashegu as a patriot who helped shape the ideology of the party.
 
Gashegu, a renowned educationist both in Rwanda and Uganda, last week succumbed to natural causes in a hospital in Kampala, Uganda.
 
"He helped shape our ideology and the manner of doing things,” the Minister in charge of cabinet affairs Protais Musoni, who represented the RPF, said on Friday during the burial.
 
Musoni led the delegation to attend the burial ceremony that took place at the deceased’s home in Mukono, Uganda.
 
The other RPF officials included Members of Parliament Gideon Kayinamura and Ambassador Zeno Mutimura.
 
"We particularly recognise Mzee Gashegu for his untiring efforts to unite the Rwandan people around the principles of being one irrespective of where you stay,” Musoni said.
 

"With Gashegu we formed the Rwandese Alliance for National Unity (RANU) way back in 1979 and the whole theme was that; Rwandans are Rwandans irrespective of our past and where we stay,” he said.
 
Musoni said that the young generation should draw a lot of a lessons from Mzee Gashegu's legacy.

In a separate interview, the Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, who was a teacher at Kitante Hill School where Mzee Haajje Gashegu was a Headmaster in the 1980’s, said that the deceased strongly participated in meetings that raised funds to support the RPF struggle.
 
"He played a crucial role in the liberation struggles of both Rwanda and Uganda. He was a patriot, straightforward, very honest and a strong believer in God,” Karugarama said.
 
In a message from Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni, read by his senior adviser on Poverty alleviation, Joan Gakwenzire, Mzee Gashegu was described as an educationist who immensely contributed to Uganda's education sector through helping many needy students go to school.

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