By Wilson Muhirwa (Participant from Rwanda)
The day began with a drive to parliament in the middle of Kigali town. We were received by the Public Relations Officer who took us on a guided tour of the National Parliament of Rwanda which is comprised of two Chambers; Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The Chamber of Deputies is comprised of 80 Deputies voted through adult suffrage while the Senate comprises of 26 Senators elected by organizations, councils and the president. He took us through the different powers, duties and responsibilities of each individual house.
It was interesting to see especially the Lower House of Parliament which in true memoriam spirit of Rwanda has been maintained with bullet holes incurred during the war between government of Rwanda and RPF soldiers.
In the Senate, we met the President/Speaker of the Senate who interacted with us about Rwanda’s democracy. “We are not pretending to say that everything we have done is perfect, but we want it to be perfect” he noted. “We want Rwandan people to feel free and to be proud of being Rwandan” He stressed the separation of powers to any government and he noted that the government of National Unity had put in place many measures to ensure that. He also told us how the Senate was a Chamber of reflection, analysts of the whole life of Rwanda…”
We drove back to Bellagio Hotel for our lunch and afterwards, with the guidance of Dr. Abui Ismael discussed the various aspects of good governance and development in view of our respective government while drawing experiences from Rwanda. Later on, we presented our results from the group work before wrapping up the day.
NAR Peace Building Institute 