In Ngoma district, eastern Rwanda, PSD’s Ntawukuriryayo got the treat of his campaign for Village Urugwiro so far (Photos: Gaaki Kigambo)
When you’ve been doing that for 13 days at 20 rallies, it’s no small treat to come to your next rally only to be engulfed in your supporters’ dust – rising excitement and jubilations.
That’s precisely what Social Democratic Party’s (PSD) Dr. Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo couldn’t have imagined lay in store for him when he came to Ngoma District (Eastern Province) Sunday’s for his second last grand rally and the 21st in total.
Under the high noon blazing sun, Ntawukuriryayo’s supporters converged at Cyasemakamba grounds for hours chanting the party’s slogans and rallying cries as they waited for their candidate without showing any signs of weariness or disorientation.
But Ntawukuriryayo was preceded by his party’s president Vincent Biruta, who is also the president of the Senate. Mistaking Biruta for Ntawukuriryayo, those who were seated in the ground’s sheds and the two erected tents poured onto the bare dusty grounds and jubilation ensued.
Biruta took it all in stride, affecting only a slight smile. But it clearly must have been too much for him as he excused himself when the jubilation slightly died down only to resurface when Ntawukuriryayo arrived.
Ntawuriryayo takes to the dusty floor
But the excited crowd did not have to wait that long to get wild with excitement again. Shortly after Biruta’s arrival, Ntawukuriryayo’s convoy pulled into the grounds and the people, counting in over a thousand, pulled all the stops out. The bare grounds felt their collective force as the dust rose high up and almost enveloped them.
The Cyasemakamba rally rivalled only the inaugural rally in Muhanga and the grand rally in Huye. And if it proved anything, it proved the party’s claims that they considered the Eastern Province one of their strongholds.
A number of excited party officials couldn’t help themselves but lash at media outlets that have been reporting that Ntawukuriryayo turned out dismal numbers to his rallies.
For a while now, PSD has been complaining that a number of media outlets weren’t properly reflecting the number of people who turned out for their rallies with the implicit effect of portraying them as an unknown party.
On Friday night during the political party debate aired simultaneously on state TV and all the radio stations, the some listeners also indicated to the three election contenders that they were not prepared for the polls as seen from the crowds they are attracting compared to the RPF.
The intore dancers kept the crowd entertained