Miss Rwanda gate: corruption; tribalism; nepotism and other pitiful baseness hidden by RPF regime

By Ben Barugahare

The Miss Rwanda Organisation annually organizes Rwanda’s famous beauty competition and crowns the winner as Miss Rwanda.This cultural event is not a unique practice of Rwanda given that it occurs quite worldwide.seen from the outside as an innocent event, it will cause a stir after the designation of miss Rwanda 2022, Nshuti Muheto Divine who would have refused the advances to the CEO when she had promised him and who would be an undercover agent to unearth this sexually depraved coordinator. The testimony below sufficiently reveals what many girls had fearfully kept secret

Akaliza said it has taken her too long to say something on what happens behind the scenes because she had no backup facts to prove what she wanted to say. Amanda Akaliza, the Miss Rwanda 2021 first runner-up has said that time has come for her to speak out on what young women, including her, pass through Miss Rwanda. Akaliza’s statement came just hours after the arrest of pageant organiser Dieudonné ‘Prince Kid’ Ishimwe, the CEO of Rwanda Inspiration Backup, which organises the annual beauty contest.Ishimwe is now detained at Remera RIB station on suspicion of sexual abuse towards the contestants of Miss Rwanda as investigation continues.Later on many former contestants voiced out the traps they were compelled to afford whereby Prince Kid sexually harassed them till impregnating some of them and those who refused were automatically eliminated from the competition. Worse, one of those former contestants named Mutesi Jolly was not only victim of this CEO but seems being also his accomplice whereby she was recruited among assessors and helped him to convince contestants to consent to sexual advances. what are the blunders really committed in the election of Miss Rwanda? Isn’t the CEO a victim of a plot hatched by competitors who want to monopolize this juicy market as it is often the case in our country.

Facts

The Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) is charging Dieudonné Ishimwe aka Prince Kid, the Miss Rwanda proprietor with three accounts of rape, sexual harassment and soliciting sexual favours from contestants. RIB Spokesperson Dr. Thierry Murangira stated in an exclusive interview that the suspect’s charge shit was submitted to prosecution on May 4, 2022.He said that the preliminary investigation identified three crimes; rape which is punishable by a term of imprisonment of between 10-15 years, soliciting or engaging in sexual activity punishable by imprisonment of between 5-7 years and sexual harassment punishable by a term of imprisonment of between 1-2 years. “He is suspected of having done so on several occasions to some of the Miss Rwanda contestants,” Dr. Murangira said. Ishimwe was arrested on April 25, 2022, ending a ten year-long public outcry that demanded an investigation into accusations of sexual harassment reported in the beauty pageant annual activity. Dr. Murangira revealed that RIB started investigation about Miss Rwanda pageant accusations two years ego.“RIB is authorized by the law to initiate investigation on own motion or on complaint. RIB started investigation about Miss Rwanda pageant since 2019,” he said. There are some examples that pushed RIB to keep on following up with Miss Rwanda event. For instance, in February 2019, there was an article in a local tabloid claiming that a contestant had offered sexual favours to secure to the crown. In 2020 also, an online television ran a story that Miss Rwanda was characterized by episodes of sexual harassment. In March, 2021, a Youtube channel published another story saying “Ruswa muri Miss Rwanda (corruption in Miss Rwanda).” “All of this has been taken into consideration by RIB to continue investigating Miss Rwanda event until 2022, when Ishimwe Dieudonné the director of Rwanda Inspiration Backup was arrested,” the RIB Spokesperson said. It is overt that RIB interviewed various people who were found helpful in the investigation and up to date, the investigation is still ongoing. RIB is encouraging other people who are willing to help in this investigation to come forward but also encourage other victims who have been abused in one way or another to go to RIB for help. “Sexual harassment will never come to an end if there are people who hide, or are afraid of telling their stories. We request them to openly approach RIB,” Dr. Murangira said. Furthermore, RIB requests victims who may have been sexually abused and fearfully remained silent, to have courage and approach RIB to file their complaints because these crimes will not end if the perpetrators go unpunished. RIB warns social media users to ethically use these platforms and stop bullying sexually harassed victims for filing their complaints, that reporting violence/abuse should be an act of praise not an act of shame. Cyber bullying victims is not only a misconduct but also a crime because it obstructs the investigation and it is punished by law, RIB said in a statement. The call came after a social media frenzy following a revelation about sexual harassment by one of the contestants

Analysis

Criteria mostly infringed

To elected the winner of miss Rwanda competition, the organization team base their assessment the beauty, intellectual skills and cultural values.

Beauty

De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum means literally that There’s no disputing about taste and colours” to imply that the beauty is relative and instead it belongs to the sight of the assessor according to esthetic scholars. This assertion seems logical given that most of time the choice adopted by assessors is diametrically opposed to the views of the public that endorse women candidates. Besides, there occurred once that two girls from one family just daughters of a director in the ministry of sports and culture were successively elected miss as if it was a random coincidence. 

Brain

Candidates afford a series of general knowledge which require a strong basic education in miscellaneous intellectual fields.Two shortcomings have often betrayed the implementation of this criteria.On one side, a girl who was elected miss Rwanda answered brilliantly to those questions but when national examination results of senior six were published she was classed among the most mediocre winners who are not eligible for university. This involves that she is really intellectually weak but she was previously briefed on questions and answers. On the other side, even if the constitution of Rwanda of 2003 as revised in 2015 in its article recognizes three languages where precisely it reads: The National language is Ikinyarwanda. The official languages are Ikinyarwanda, English and French. An organic law may add or remove an official language. Official documents may be either in one, two or all of the official languages; English was privileged over French in intellectual questions and this imply a trend to favor people who came from Uganda in the detriment of other citizens.

Cultural values

in general children who have evolved in wealthy circles and especially in the city do not master the language or the cultural values ​​it contains; instead, children coming from upcountry are skilled in this field. So, coming from urban areas and simultaneously master the traditional values is a rare phenomenon and this also assumes that the person was dictated questions and answers before taking the test.

Tribalism 

During the miss Rwanda event of 2019 which was gained by Nimwiza Meghan, a girl from western province named Mwiseneza Josiane received many approvals especially from diaspora and there was spread that she was a Hutu. Tutsi fought her vigorously alleging that they cannot accept a miss who comes from an ethnic which committed genocide as if all Hutus committed this horrible crime. Moreover, some extremists would have detected that Miss Liliane Irankunda and Miss Doriane Kundwa would be hybrid, which would have upset them.

This regrettable baseness generally and silently anchored in the hearts of Rwandans had just burst into the open just for a simple crown of miss. Where are we finally going?

Corruption and nepotism

If you find a dog perched in a tree, know that it was someone who put it there because this animal does not know how to climb. Daughter of colonel; daughter of a director; former refugee from……In Rwanda we are used to the fact that any service is always bought and the Rwandans are so perceptive that they even bribe the international organizations responsible for assessing corruption

The reason why people were wondering whether this miss competition was spared from this baseness and this arrest has just given us the long-awaited answer.

Conclusion

Public markets; promotion in army and police; recruitment of staff in the public service; coverage of tax evasions in favor some traders; appointment to high ranked positions; elections of mayors, deputies, senators, everything is prepared in advance by concussion, nepotism, favoritism to the extent that corruption has become for the Kigali regime an ordinary practice to which Rwandans are already accustomed. It is high time to eradicate it in all sectors because as a double-edged sword, it risks compromising them in the eyes of the international community which they have often deceived by appearances.