President Kagame shares experiences and lessons that inspired him to drive change

Paul Kagame, the President of the Republic of Rwanda, has shared some experiences and lessons that motivated him to promote change as he reflected on his early life struggles as a young refugee in Uganda.

While addressing the opening ceremony of the seventh edition of the Youth Connekt Africa Summit at the Kigali Convention Centre, Kagame said that he encountered situations that taught him many lessons that he could not have learnt in school but only through life.

“I asked my father when I was twelve, who I lost when I was fifteen, ‘What did we do? Why are we here?’ We were in a refugee camp, being fed with weekly rations. My father told a long story, but it was clear that it was politics, the leaders,” Kagame stated.

“It was a convergence of colonial times and the times of independence. Everything was just what it should not have been, those are the lessons we learned,” he further said.

Kagame emphasized that young people do not have to go through the challenges they faced, in the youth years, in order to be shaped the right way.

“It is disheartening that what I am talking about then, so many years ago in the sixties, some of that is still happening even now.”

“You have people, especially young people, who are still suffering because of politics and all kinds of bad governance. What I experienced when I was four years old, why should it be happening now anywhere? Why should it happen anywhere on our continent?”

YouthConnekt is a multi-dimensional programme that aims at connecting youth to their role models, peers, resources, technologies, skills and economic opportunities by filling the gap between youth and opportunities for an economically empowering environment.

This year’s summit is held under the ‘Jobs for Youth Through Innovative Skilling’ theme.

Lesotho’s Prime Minister Samuel Ntsokoane Matekane, Ahunna Eziakonwa, the UNDP Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Africa, and more than 20 African Ministers of Youth also attended the summit, which convened thousands of young leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, artists and students from across the continent.

Photo: The opening ceremony of the seventh edition of the Youth Connekt Africa Summit took place at the Kigali Convention Centre.

Photo: Over 20 African Ministers of Youth attended the 7th edition of the Youth Connekt Africa Summit in Kigali.

Photo: Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and Lesotho’s Prime Minister Samuel Ntsokoane Matekane were the guest of honour at the opening ceremony.