President Paul Kagame on Tuesday met with over 2,000 Cell Executive Secretaries from across the country and officiated the closing ceremony of National Civic Training at Intare Arena in the capital Kigali.
In his remarks, President Kagame rallied the leaders to work together to achieve desired results that propel the country forward.
“If everyone chooses to work alone as an individual we will miss our shared destination, vision. When we work together towards the same goal, that is when our achievements count,“ President Kagame told the Cell Executive Secretaries.
Drawing from a case in Kicukiro district, President Kagame asked whether the District Executive Administrator Umutesi Solange was in the room. She stood up and was handed a microphone as she attentively listened to the President walking towards her.
“I have always wanted to see you and ask you. Do you remember when I came to Kicukiro accompanied by the Prime Minister and other ministers? We saw an unfinished building wrapped with crazy things,“ President Kagame told her under pin drop silence in the room.
In a low tone voice, Umutesi Solange responded saying, “ Yes, I remember your Excellency. President Kagame added, Do you remember what we discussed on the site? “ Yes I remember everything, Your Excellency,“ she noted.
President Kagame also told her that after several months he passed by and noticed that nothing had been done on site as earlier agreed during the first surprise visit.
The President noted that he couldn’t understand why nothing had been done despite having discussed with concerned leaders of institutions including the Kigali city Mayor, Infrastructure ministry, Prime Minister and Umutesi herself.
For almost a minute, Umutesi had no words to respond and later she begged the President, “ I ask for forgiveness, there was negligence on my side, your Excellency.“
The President told her to forget about forgiveness and tasked her to explain what she did to fix the problem.
Umutesi explained that the following day she called (Yannick) the owner of the building under construction and found out that his construction permit had expired and dully processed a renewed permit.
However, President Kagame was not convinced by Umutesi’s explanations and wondered why she had done nothing including not meeting Yannick the proprietor of the building in question.
“How dare you ignore what you were told to do and just go home and sleep and do nothing about it. And you are still there as a leader,“ President Kagame queried.
Umutesi pleaded for more forgiveness but the President asked her, “of what use would forgiveness be in such a case?“ Umutesi remained still and frozen to the core as thousands of cell leaders carefully listened in total silence.
Without any tangible and convisive response from Umutesi, President Kagame walked away and tasked the Mayor of Kigali City Pudence Rubingisa to explain.
Mayor Rubingisa politely admitted there was negligence on his part. The President also tasked the Infrastructure minister to stand up and explain the issue of collapsing buildings in the city.
