President Mwai Kibaki today joined other African leaders who attended a colourful swearing-in ceremony for the Rwandan Head of State, President Paul Kagame.

The ceremony attended by other 14 African Heads of State and Government from Nigeria, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Togo, Burundi, Zambia, Benin, Liberia, Gabon, Central African Republic, Malawi, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso was held at the symbolic Amohoro National Stadium and witnessed by an estimated crowd of 30,000 people.

President Kibaki who has been on a two day official visit to Rwanda also attended an African Heads of State and Government consultative forum on the Millennium Development Goals yesterday.

In his address during the ceremony President Kagame thanked the several Heads of State and Government who graced the occasion and termed it as a
true mark of African solidarity and enhanced spirit of good neighbouriness
in the continent.

President Kagame said that Africa must ignore external forces that portray arrogance and patronizing attitude which he cited as the critical factors that cause vicious poverty and underdevelopment in the continent and its people.

The Rwandan President said that poverty and underdevelopment denies people dignity and called upon the African continent to stand firmly against.

He noted that Africa needed more tools to implement ideas relevant to its situation and the practice of politics that promote tolerance, inclusion and protection of Human Rights.

President Kagame affirmed that Africa does not need patronage on the direction its nations should take but instead require installation of machanisms that build successful societies such as protection of national interests, national cohesion and unity.

He further thanked the people of Rwanda for demonstrating unwavering trust on him and the country’s institutions of governance and pledged to serve the nation with diligence so as to tackle various challenges that confront the populace.

Noting that he was ready to take the nation to the next level of development, President Kagame urged the people of Rwanda to join him in building a country that avails equal opportunities to all and where everyone was proud to call home.

The Rwandan Head of State won a second term in office of seven years, with a convincing majority of 93 per cent of the total votes cast with the Rwandese Patriotic Front.

During the colourful event President Kagame was presented with both national and traditional symbols of leadership as the ecstatic crowd cheered on.

International preacher Rich Warren thanked the people of Rwanda for choosing life and overcoming the trauma of 1994 genocide and becoming an embodiment of hope, good governance and prosperity world-over.

Several groups of traditional dancers entertained hundreds of guests, from all corners of the world, who graced the occasion.