The Head of State, who is also the Chairman of the ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi) made the remarks on Monday, while presiding over the party's extended National Executive Committee (NEC), which was aimed at taking stock of the progress in fighting COVID-19 and asses economic recovery plans.
President Kagame said that the biggest challenge the country faces today is poor service delivery, not because of lack of infrastructure or means to provide good services but mainly because of a poor attitude that doesn't give priority to urgency.
'We need to be doing things at the pace we need to develop. We need to do things faster and better. Mindset is very important,' President Kagame said.
'If you have everything required to provide services, why don't you give it? Why do you need to wait another hour, another day to provide the service you should have provided?'
The head of state said it happens because of two reasons, one being the person who is supposed to give the service and is not doing so and the person who is supposed to get a service and does not get it.
'If you just accept things to be that way, you walk out of the room and go complaining on the way or you vent your anger elsewhere, you are part of the problem because you are not doing anything about it,' President Kagame said.
He urged the youth especially to be categorical in rejecting bad services and to also do something to address it rather than complaining.
President Kagame gave an example of a pregnant woman in Karongi district who lost her life and that of her baby due to sheer negligence because they could not trace her Mutuelle de Sante file yet she had paid her dues.
He said the woman was tossed up and down and told that they needed to address the issue regarding her records with the headquarters in Kigali and they asked her to go back home and wait, yet the woman had paid and needed a service urgently.
'It was not because she hadn't paid. The problem was with the people supposed to give her a service. It was their mistake. They sent her back, later in the evening that same day, she died delivering. The baby died too. This is a true story,'
'Let us assume that she had other serious issues to address, first give her a service and settle whatever issue there is later,' President Kagame.
President Kagame said that what is unfortunate is that even the death of a person or people does not change anything people continue to go about their work with the same attitude, adding that it is the innocent people who pay the price; urging leaders to address issues around service delivery as soon as possible.
Nicole Kamanzi M.
