Democracy Begins Where We Live The ballot takes a minute, democracy takes the years that follow. Citizens who stay present give it strength. If we expect leaders to listen, we keep speaking. If we want institutions to respond, we learn where and how decisions are made. If we want representation to mean something, we help define what we expect to be represented. Rwanda's local government elections begin on Saturday the 24th October. Villages choose first, cells follow on 31st October, sectors on 7th November, and the National Councils complete their leadership by 15th December. Every village meeting is an invitation to shape the years ahead. To those who will win, representation is a promise you renew every day. It asks you to stay close enough to people's reality to know what deserves to be said, to be accountable enough to explain what was done, and to turn and listen the moment that reality shifts. Local elections turn democracy into culture, and they ask what representation really means. For young Rwandans, participation means arriving with confidence, knowledge and space to shape conversations about the communities they will inherit, and sitting at the table because their ideas are needed. Your village may seem small for such a large idea. Yet this is where public life becomes personal. It happens in the cell where residents raise concerns. In the sector where competing needs are prioritised. In the everyday meeting between a citizen and the person entrusted to represent them. An unfinished road is a mother carrying her harvest the long way to market. A public service within reach is dignity delivered. A young person looking for work meets every institution in the one person responsible for responding. Every seat carries a question about what it is for. Every citizen carries one too, whether we remain present after they begin speaking. Show up on 24 October. Ask your candidates one clear question. Stay for the answer. The ballot gives them a seat. We give that seat its purpose. #RwandaDecides #Choose #Participate #Shape

Today, as we mark World Mental Health Day, let us remember that a healthy community is one where people feel safe to speak about their struggles and receive support without shame. #MindYourWellbeing #MentalhealthDay #MentalWellbeing

We have land and water, yet citizens remain poor; where is the local leadership? One of the contradictions i continue to observe in our society is that we have land, water resources, favourable agricultural conditions in many areas, and well-developed policies, yet many citizens continue to struggle with poverty and rising food prices. This raises an important question; are we making sufficient use of the resources already available to us? Travel through Bugesera district, particularly around its lakes, and you will be surprised by the amount of land that appears underutilised. Bugesera is endowed with nine lakes: Rweru, Cyohoha North, Cyohoha South, Rumira, Mirayi, Gashanga, Kidogo, Kirimbi, and Gaharwa. These are valuable natural resources that could contribute significantly to agricultural production, irrigation, fisheries, tourism, and employment creation. In some areas, landowners are increasingly subdividing their properties into smaller plots for sale rather than exploring opportunities for productive agricultural investments. Similar observations can be made in Kayonza district, particularly around lake Muhazi, where land with considerable agricultural potential is not always being fully utilised. How do we explain the continued underutilisation of potentially productive land when households are struggling with high food prices and limited economic opportunities? More importantly, Rwanda is not starting from scratch when it comes to agricultural planning. The country already has an Irrigation Master Plan, developed to guide the sustainable exploitation of water resources and reduce dependence on rain-fed agriculture. The plan identifies several lakes in Bugesera, including Gashanga, Kidogo, Rumira, Mirayi, Kirimbi, and Gaharwa, as potential sources of irrigation water. The original Irrigation master plan identified approximately 53,595 hectares with irrigation potential in Bugesera district alone. Furthermore, the updated national irrigation assessment presented in August 2026 identified approximately 610,595 hectares of gross potential irrigable land across Rwanda, compared with the approximately 501,509 hectares identified in the 2020 Irrigation Master Plan. Yet, by 2025, only 74,375 hectares had been developed under irrigation. These figures demonstrate that Rwanda has considerable untapped agricultural potential. The challenge is how quickly and effectively we can translate this potential into productive investments that improve household incomes and national food security. This brings me back to local government leadership. Every district has a development strategy, annual performance commitments, technical staff, and institutions responsible for supporting agricultural transformation. What we should increasingly demand is evidence of how these structures are helping citizens turn available resources into sustainable sources of income. Local leaders should be actively identifying underutilised agricultural land, facilitating partnerships between landowners and investors, supporting irrigation development, strengthening agricultural cooperatives, and connecting farmers to reliable markets. Imagine what could happen if organised groups of young people were supported to lease suitable land around Bugesera's lakes and engage in commercial production of vegetables, fruits, and other high-value crops. With appropriate irrigation systems, technical assistance, affordable financing, and guaranteed market opportunities, these initiatives could create jobs, improve household incomes, and increase food production throughout the year. Such investments must comply with environmental regulations, particularly those protecting lakeshores, wetlands, and sensitive ecosystems. Agricultural transformation should never come at the expense of environmental sustainability. We should also acknowledge that some irrigation initiatives are already underway. The issue is not that nothing has been done, but whether the scale and pace of implementation correspond to the opportunities available and the economic challenges facing citizens. Another concern is the increasing subdivision of agricultural land into smaller plots for sale. While landowners have legitimate economic interests, we must examine whether this trend is gradually undermining opportunities for commercially viable agricultural production. Local authorities should encourage productive land use through appropriate incentives, land consolidation arrangements, agricultural partnerships, and investment facilitation rather than relying exclusively on restrictions. High food prices cannot be attributed solely to insufficient agricultural production. Transport costs, storage limitations, post-harvest losses, market inefficiencies, and climate variability also contribute. Nevertheless, expanding irrigation and improving agricultural productivity could help stabilise food supplies and strengthen farmers' incomes. Perhaps it is time for district leaders to be assessed not only on infrastructure development and administrative performance, but also on how much productive land they have helped bring into use, how many agricultural enterprises they have facilitated, and how many sustainable jobs their interventions have generated. Ultimately, the greatest challenge may not be the scarcity of resources, but our ability to organise, finance, and utilise them productively. When citizens remain poor despite the economic opportunities surrounding them, we must ask whether our local development strategies are delivering the transformation they promise. Rwanda has invested significantly in planning its agricultural future. The next challenge is ensuring that these plans translate into productive farms, affordable food, sustainable employment, and improved livelihoods. Development should not be measured only by the strategies we produce, but by the opportunities those strategies create for ordinary citizens.