Gasigwa overcomes anguish to sit top of Rwanda Tennis

JEAN Claude Gasigwa lost his family during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and survived with only a step sister, who recently died in a car accident. The 27-year-old Rwanda’s top seed was the second last in the family of five, three girls and two boys with their mother as the caretaker since his father died when he was still in his mother ‘s womb hence his name “Gasigwa” meaning “left with no father”. “It is this time 16 years ago when my whole family was brutally killed in Gikondo and was left with only a sister,” Gasigwa painfully narrates. “I was 11 years old and in primary four when the despicable events started to unfold in my life. My mother told us that we had to live home since someone had informed her that we were on the list of the people to be killed. “A friend of the family Mzee Hussien took the responsibility of hiding us for over 2 weeks, but later information started to lick that there were people in his house so he told us to go and find another place to hide since he feared for his life although news was passed on that the killings had stopped. “Later is when we discovered it was the tactic used to finish us all, my mother remained with two of my sisters and forced me to go back to Mzee Hussein ‘s house, she took my little sister to another friends house and my elder brother was no where to be found. On my way, an old lady Mariegarita told me that my mother and sisters have been shot and dumped in the toilet and she hid me in her house.” The traumatic experiences didn’t harbor the tennis ace from valuing and accepting what life has to offer. In 1999 after dropping out of School due to lack of funds, Gasigwa started playing tennis at Circle Sports Center, Kigali with the help of its president Denis Karera. His career sparked off in 2003 when he qualified amongst the four contestants that represented Rwanda in the Davis Cup tournament. Left to fend for himself, without a guardian 11 years ago, Gasigwa has developed through the ranks in Rwanda’s tennis, which has seen him dominate the game in the last couple of years. He has had a good run over the years scooping most of the Tennis prize money both home and East Africa including last year‘s ITF/CAT money circuit in the Ugandan leg and Kigali leg but reached the semi-final in the Nairobi leg. Irrespective of his recent nagging rib injury he will have to play the qualifying tournament for Rwanda’s top four representatives in this year‘s Davis Cup. Ends