Saturday 28th June is the day that was set aside to celebrate as local artists of Rwanda. The event was organized at the small stadium in Remera between 3pm and 7pm.

Safari Remy, chairperson of the association that brings together Rwandan artists said at the celebrations that such special days mean a lot to local artists and it is one of the ways of bringing them closer to their fans.

"It is only unfortunate that some of us fail to realize how important it is to work together and that is why we never get recognized at the end of the day,” said Safari.

Safari condemned those artists who think they have developed so much that they don’t need to unite with others, saying that, that is the sole reason why Rwandan artists have lagged behind in the music world.

"We made announcements and many times we held meetings in preparation for this day, we even went ahead to extend written invitations to some of our members but most of them did not turn up,” said  safari upon being asked why most renown celebrities did not turn up.

On such a day that was supposed to be of great magnitude and honor, you would expect to see musicians like Coga stylist Rafiki, Miss Jojo, dady Kasanova, but that was not the case.

But even those who made an effort to attend did not get a chance to present. Most of them attributed the failure to poor management of the association.

"This committee is so disorganized, it should be dissolved if any success is to be seen any where in the future,” said Mr. Kiki with much disappointment.

Mr. Kiki famously known for his inshuti yabagore (women’s friend) fame was furious with the organizers and did not hide his frustration.

"I have injected a lot of money into this project and now all my fans who were expecting to see me present are going home discouraged,” Kiki said furiously.

The self styled female advocate alongside others like Mani Charles, Dr Davis, Rasta Macus and many others were denied the chance to sing after being put on the list.

"We should just be told openly that we are not any important and we will stop claiming the fair share we deserve,” grumbled Mani Chales.

Dr Davis, the owner of the voice behind the popular song iwacu iRemera (my home Remera) described the whole scenario as a mess.

He questioned why most local events such as this are handled with low respect compared to how foreign artists are treated.

"I don’t think that Chaka Chaka or 2face would be staged here. And besides why do some people still think that we don’t have musicians in Rwanda,” wondered the music doctor.

Ends