Kigali’s women candidates unveil agendas

The five female candidates who are competing for two parliamentary seats reserved for women representatives in the City of Kigali launched their campaigns on Thursday, pledging to tackle issues that range from economic development and adult education to domestic and gender based violence, among others. Emerthe Kabatesi, Felister Mukarukiza, Yvonne Uwayisenga, Jeannine Mukamugema and Rose Mukantabana, kick-started their campaigns at the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre (IPRC-Kigali), in Kicukiro. Using five minutes, each of the candidates introduced themselves and their plans to members of their electoral college. The latter is made up of selected women leaders under the National Council of Women (NCW) from the grassroots administrative levels of the village (Umudugudu), the Cell, and the Sector up to the higher level of local government that include districts and provinces, as well as the national level where national committee members of the NCW join in to constitute the electoral college. For Mukantabana, a 52-year-old Speaker of the outgoing Chamber of Deputies and a lawyer by profession who holds a Master’s degree in human rights, her “good performance in the past five years” encouraged her to run again. “A lot was achieved in the past five years in terms of government oversight, enacting legislation and representing you that give me much confidence that I can achieve more if you give me your votes,” she told about 120 women who had turned up for the campaign. Mukantabana said that she was seeking the women’s votes again so that she can go back to parliament and oversee the implementation of many laws that she helped enact during her last tenure in parliament. She also said that she would work harder to enhance the country’s economic development and her relations with other countries. Mukamugema, a new entrant, is a mother of four girls. She holds a management degree as well as 15 years of experience as a senior parliamentary staffer. She told the gathering that she intended to fully cooperate with other MPs once she is elected and pledged to fight gender based violence, advocate for the rights of the Rwandan child, and help improve women’s access to credit facilities. “I am very willing to work hard,” she vowed. Uwayisenga, 47, has significant parliamentary experience as a former Deputy Chairperson of the Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Political Affairs and Gender in the outgoing parliament and a Deputy Speaker of the House in the past. The mother of four who holds a Master’s degree in business law emphasised that she will use her experience to further prop up the country’s development agenda as well as vigorously tackle nagging issues bequeathed to the nation by its history, particularly the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. “Apart from working hard to pass and review laws to spur development, there are issues of family wrangles that require our attention,” she said. “This needs serious advocacy and as you very well see, I am mature enough – you can trust that I will not fail you”. Mukarukiza, 43, is a mother of five who also has five years of experience as a primary teacher. She is also an internal auditor at Kigali Health Institute (KHI). As a coordinator of the National Council of Women in Gasabo District, Mukarukiza said that she will work selflessly to serve the interests of women as well as the nation. The holder of a Master’s Degree in Accounting from the National University of Rwanda (NUR), told voters that she waited long enough before contesting to be a legislator because she first needed to acquire the experience needed to help improve the lives of other people. “I will work to improve the welfare of Rwandans with special focus on gender based development and education,” she said. As for Kabatesi, a mother of five, she is an educationist working at the Rwanda Education Board (REB) and pursuing a Master’s Degree in Education at the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE). It is not her first attempt at getting a seat in parliament as she unsuccessfully tried five years ago. “I failed in the last campaign but I am not giving up,” she said. The five candidates who also took their campaigns to the Kigali Institute of Management (KIM) on Friday and to Kabuga and Ndera on Saturday, will carry on with a rally in Bumbogo in Gasabo District on Monday.