Early last week, the public was given chance to show support for their favorite Miss Rwanda 2021 contestants in a two-week voting exercise that will run until March 6. A total of 37 contestants representing all provinces and the City of Kigali are vying for the top spot in the voting stage which will see two contestants with the highest number of votes booking automatic tickets to the boot camp. Since the voting exercise kicked off on Tuesday, February 23, contestants are zealously eyeing the crown, given all possible strategies they are using, such as celebrities to help them in their campaign, their fame or projects. Below are some of the means with which contestants are using gather votes: Fame Marie-Paul Kayirebwa (No.13) has featured in a number of hit songs and this gives her the advantage to attract attention from the music audience as she returns to the beauty competition, having previously contested Miss Rwanda 2018 but couldn’t pass the auditions. The 21-year-old’s elegance and acting talent saw Bruce Melodie and Meddy feature her in the videos for their respective songs ‘Ikinyafu’ and We Don’t Care’. She was hailed by many for her acting skills in both songs, and this could boost her chances of at least becoming Miss Popularity. Youth-oriented projects Grace Ingabire, 25, (No. 7) has a degree in dance that she pursued from her love for dance. She is the project manager for Ikiringo, a project that aims at protecting and promoting local dances in Rwanda. Using her social media platform, she is showcasing her project to convince the public to give her a chance to make it to the next stage of the pageant. Another contestant is 21-year-old Linda Nkusi Uwankusi (No.32) had the option of working at her mother’s business after completing her secondary school studies in Literature, Economics and Geography back in 2019 but she chose to exploit her parents’ farm in Masaka, Kicukiro District, and started growing a cash crop which, she said, is largely wanted by both local and foreign processing factories. Linda Nkusi Uwankusi. Doing agribusiness is a rare trend for the majority of youth, especially those who were born and raised in Kigali. However, through her project, Uwankusi wants to change that mindset. “I could have joined her (mother) business, but I thought it would be a good idea to exploit our land with an agricultural project. And I didn’t regret it because the market is open for my production and I am already giving a job to fellow youth,” she said. With the Miss Rwanda crown, she believes her voice would sound more influential while mobilizing initiatives oriented in encouraging and engaging more youth in agribusiness. “This is a sector that not only the majority of the country’s population depends on but whose volume of production is still smaller than the current market demand from local factories and foreign ones. With my experience, I want to show my fellow youth the opportunities and benefits existing in this sector so I can inspire them to show appetite in investing in it,” she said. Ali Kiba seeks votes A lot has been said since contestant Lea Umutesi (27) was posted by Tanzanian music star Ali Kiba in order to mobilize his 6.4 million Instagram followers to vote for her in the ongoing Miss Rwanda 2021 voting exercise. A Year Three university student in Travel and Tourism Management, Umutesi told local media outlets that it’s no surprise that the Tanzanian singer showed her the support because they are ‘friends’ and that he sometimes visits her family. She dismissed any rumors linking her to a relationship with the singer and said that he knew the singer’s platform would help boost her votes. Kiba’s post has shaken the Miss Rwanda 2021 voting rankings which saw Umutesi go fourth, as it stands, from 14th, a position at which she sat before the post. The ‘experience’ factor A host of names in this year’s Miss Rwanda editions are familiar to the beauty contest, having contested in previous editions, failed but have no intentions of giving up the crown. The likes of Hope Akaliza (Eastern), Teta Hense Musana, Evelyne Gaju and Claudette Umwaliwase (all representing Kigali City) are not new to the pageant after they failed to impress in last year’s edition. They took enough time to follow the entire contest and their experience, however small or big it is, could help them go a step forward this year if they worked on the mistakes that previously made them fail. Voting online is ongoing via IGIHE’s website, while SMS voting continues via MTN line by typing ‘MISS’ space ‘Number of a contestant’ and sending it to 1525.
