Meet the 28-year-old Miss Rwanda beauty pageants organiser

He describes himself as “a passionate, sober, disciplined guy” that loves his country, Rwanda; one who knows that “there is no one that can bring solutions to our problems but Rwandans themselves”. And that’s not all, as he adds: “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I’m still single”. At just 28 years of age, Kagame Ishimwe Dieudonne is the founder and Managing Director of Rwanda Inspiration Backup, the company that is organising this year’s Miss Rwanda beauty pageant. This is the third consecutive year that Ishimwe is handling the pageant, having done the same in 2014 and 2015. The first two pageants – the inaugural Miss Rwanda 2009, and the subsequent one two years later, in 2012 had been organised by different entities. In a way, Ishimwe is the embodiment of stability and continuity for the pageant that had appeared rather ill-fated right from the start. For the first time in the history of the pageant, this year the government decided to fully privatize the contest, where in previous years it had had a stake in it. This is therefore the first fully private franchisee for Miss Rwanda. Been there, done that Ishimwe started organizing beauty contests while still a student at the Independent Institute of Lay Adventists of Kigali (INILAK), from where he graduated with a degree in Info Systems Management in 2012. After pulling the feat at INILAK, Ishimwe felt it was time to spread his wings, replicating the concept at other such university campuses as; the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE), Kigali Institute of Management (KIM), and the School of Finance and Banking (SFB). “My focus has always been on young people because I believe that as young people we can create our own world and improve ourselves,” he intimates. Content with the success of the university pageants, Ishimwe decided to take his organizational skills to the next level –the national level. “I went to RDB and registered my company –Rwanda Inspirations Backup, after which I started organizing many different events besides Miss Rwanda, like the Young Entrepreneurs Debate competition because I believe that the key to business is communication skills. So the national young entrepreneurs’ debate competition is aimed at teaching young people to know exactly how to express themselves, because when you run a business you have to convince people to buy your products or services.” Tough beginnings Ishimwe’s first shot at organizing Miss Rwanda came in 2014, two years after graduating from university. Aware of the detours along the way, he was neither overly ambitious, nor optimistic by then: “I knew it would be a relatively slow start in terms of business, but that in subsequent years, things would get better and better.” Miss Rwanda 2014 Colombe Akiwacu crowns her successor Doriane Kundwa. (File) On a scale of 100, he set his expectations at a rather conservative 60 %. He cites a number of reasons why that first assignment was an extremely tough call: “It wasn’t easy because Miss Rwanda is not a personal event -it’s a public event, and it espouses the Rwandan image and values, so that’s the first challenge. The other challenge was getting potential sponsors to see the sense in associating with Miss Rwanda as a brand”. Still, there was the small “problem” of his age (26 at the time), which made it hard for some potential sponsors to trust in him. Another huge challenge arose from the fact that there had been different organizers for the first two Miss Rwanda competitions. “Now we have a chance because we have a long term contract to run the pageant, for instance this is the third consecutive year that we are running Miss Rwanda. The first two Miss Rwanda contests were organized by different organizers, so the same mistakes from the previous year would be carried over to the next.” He insists that having continuity in the organization is paramount: “It (continuity) gives you ample time to partner with other stakeholders when they know you are in it for the long haul. Where organizers change every year, there is the risk of the institution being labeled as fake.” Yet that was not all, as Ishimwe further explains: “There was the question of people’s limited perceptions about the essence of the pageant. We had to make people know that Miss Rwanda is not just about beauty, but that it’s all about all the positive attributes of Rwandan culture and values. Also you have to think about your country’s image, because Rwandan people like their image as a country. So when you are organizing an event like this, which can have an impact on your country’s image you have to be careful and you have to know exactly what it is that your country stands for.” Hard work bears fruit The poor fortunes of the 2014 Miss Rwanda contest were well borne by the contestants, with eventual winner, Colombe Akiwacu walking away with a second-hand car as winning prize. The following year, 2015, things got a little better, with the winner, Doriane Kundwa walking away with the grand prize of a brand new Suzuki SX4. As a bonus, she also received a monthly salary of Rwf 700,000 for the duration of her reign, where in past pageants there had been none. On top of this, she also received a weekly stipend of Rwf 100,000 for upkeep. This year, the winner will walk away with a brand new car, a Suzuki Swift 2015 model, and an improved monthly salary of Rwf 800,000. The top five 2015 finalists. (L-R): Lynca Akacu, Doriane Kundwa, Balbine Mutoni, Vanessa Raissa Uwase and Fiona Mutoni. (File) The number of sponsors too has increased exponentially compared to three years ago. Also new to this year’s contest is the introduction of Imihigo (performance contracts) like is done by other public servants in the country: “The system of Imihigo was introduced to re-orient people’s thinking about the institution of Miss Rwanda,” Ishimwe explains, adding: “Miss Rwanda is not just about a person, it’s an institution. So we need to have an institution which positively and directly impacts society. Miss Rwanda should be a channel through which we can demonstrate that you can do something for your country, not the other way round.” The contestants will then review their performance contracts at the Umuganura festival for purposes of impact assessment. Ishimwe insists that it’s not for the money that he took up this challenge: “If it were for the money there are several other businesses that I could think of. I do it because culture adds value to our lives as a nation, so we have to protect it. I do it to make my contribution to the nation as a person, so that if I die at least I will be remembered as the guy who put all his passion in organizing Miss Rwanda.” He describes the contest as “a dream come true” for Rwandan girls: “It gives you exposure, and provided you use this exposure in a good way, it becomes a success. It promotes your image and gives you value whereby you can say something and people will listen to you. Above all, it’s positive exposure to the country, because the winner gets known worldwide.” Ishimwe draws a lot of inspiration from the person of President Paul Kagame: “And for me it’s not really the fact that he is the president, but his personal story as a man, how far he has come, and that inspires so many people.”

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Meet the 28-year-old Miss Rwanda beauty pageants organiser