9th Oct 2013 – The Kenyan Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Technology today visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial during a visit to Rwanda hosted by Mount Kenya University, an institution with campuses in both Rwanda and Kenya.
The Committee, comprising over 20 MPs, laid wreaths at mass graves adjacent to the Memorial, where some 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide lie buried, before touring the building itself, where young Rwandans today come together to take part in peace-building education organised by the Aegis Trust.Recalling Kenya’s post-election violence in 2007, visit host Simon N Gicharu, Founder and Chairman of Mount Kenya University, commented, “Having undergone something almost similar to what Rwandans had undergone through the genocide, in 2007, I felt that this tour could not be complete without bringing the parliamentarians who are our politicians to this place to see, in case they don’t play their politics right in Kenya, we can also go the genocide way.”
Hon. Sabina Wanjiru Chege, MP, Chairperson of the Kenyan Education Committee, commented, “We have been touched by what is here … we have learnt our lessons, and I feel that this is something that should be shared not only to other fellow parliamentarians but also to our children. We should never allow such a thing to happen, not only in Africa but in the World…. I’m shocked to see how even the church can separate people; I am shocked to see how a government can betray its own people; but despite our colour, despite our race, despite where we’ve come from and the languages that we speak, we are saying we are one. We are all created by one God, and we should respect each other and actually love each other. This is a very strong message that we’re going to take home, that this should never, ever happen, even to any other country in the World.”
Established by Aegis in 2004 at the request of the Rwandan Government and Kigali City Council, the Kigali Genocide Memorial continues to be run by Aegis on behalf of CNLG (Rwanda’s National Commission for the Fight against Genocide) as a place both of remembrance and learning for a new generation.
The Kenyan MPs’ visit to the Memorial came at the end of an education-focussed tour of Rwanda, during which they were particularly studying this country’s experience with the ‘one laptop per child’ project. Following Rwanda’s lead, Kenya is about to launch a similar project of its own.
To see Gicharu and Chege speaking at the Kigali Genocide Memorial,click here for Aegis’ YouTube film of the visit.
Photographs of the visit are available to view or download here: http://splashurl.com/qa6k2cw
