Come back and help Rwanda prosper – returnee

It is now six months since Muhammad Saeed Tumukuze and his family decided to return to Rwanda, after living as a refugee in Pakistan for 22 years. Tumukuze left the country as a young man in 1991, having acquired a scholarship to study in the Asian country. Now half a year after he gave up his refugee status from the far-flung country, he says he doesn’t regret his decision. “I’m now at peace because I am in my country. There is that sense of satisfaction that comes with being home. I visit my parents at least thrice a week and my children and wife are happy, which we all along dreamed about during our time in Pakistan,” he said in an interview. After his repatriation in January, which was facilitated by UNHCR and the Rwandan embassy in China, Tumukuze had initially stayed with his parents in Nyarusange Sector in Muhanga District. However, he said, his children found it hard to cope with village life, which they were not used to, thereby relocating to Kigali City where the family is now residing in Nyamirambo suburb an area predominantly inhabited by people of the Islamic belief, which he also subscribes to. At his new home in Nyamirambo, the 44-year old linguistic expert managed to enroll his two older children in primary school and says he easily accesses basic facilities like medical attention as well as security, which he describes as the basic needs of any person. “There is nothing worse than living as a refugee…you may be a professor at university but as long as you’re a refugee, you will never be at peace; at least this is something I am saying from experience.” His message to those who remain in refuge is simple. “Rwanda is peaceful what we need is to come together, mobilise resources as countrymen to drive our country to prosperity.” How he repatriated “I had lost all hope of ever returning home so I sought asylum so that I could get more support,” Tumukuze, who now has two masters in Islamic studies from the International Islamic University of Islamabad said, as he watched his eldest daughter, Bilquees Tumukuze, 9, playing with other children in the compound. Having been born in a foreign land, his children fluently speak Urdu. “I’m optimistic that they will soon master their mother language. I always teach them and since they are at school, they also need to adapt because their classmates speak Kinyarwanda. So it is only a matter of time,” says Alice Aliya Benimana, the children’s mother. Aliya met her husband at the same university he attended in the Pakistani capital Islamabad where the two were pursuing the Islamic studies. Though he is still searching for a job, Tumukuze says he has since joined the Islamic association and currently they are on a countrywide tour preaching the Koran especially spreading the virtues of peace building and reconciliation. He gets assistance from the Islamic associations. He, however, requests for government’s intervention in securing his domestic belongings that have been grounded at Mombasa Port despite being cleared by UN agency in Pakistan in collaboration with Rwanda’s embassy in China. He says that the authorities at the port are demanding for over $3,000 to have them cleared, which he says he cannot afford.

National

Come back and help Rwanda prosper – returnee