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Paul Kagame. Photo by Hildenbrand /MSC. .

10 Most Famous Rwandan People

Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The country is a member of the African Union, the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, COMESA, OIF and the East African Community.

It is commonly known for the Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 662,000 Tutsi deaths. Here are the Top 10 Famous Rwandan People.

1. Paul Kagame

Photo by Lawrence Jackson. .

Paul Kagame is the sixth and current President of Rwanda, having taken office in 2000 when his predecessor, Pasteur Bizimungu, resigned. Kagame previously commanded the rebel force that ended the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, and was considered Rwanda’s de facto leader when he served as Vice President and Minister of Defence from 1994 to 2000.

Kagame was born to a Tutsi family in southern Rwanda. When he was two years old, the Rwandan Revolution ended centuries of Tutsi political dominance; his family fled to Uganda, where he spent the rest of his childhood.

2. Agathe Uwilingiyimana

Agathe Uwilingiyimana, sometimes known as Madame Agathe, was a Rwandan political figure. She served as Prime Minister of Rwanda from 18 July 1993 until her assassination on 7 April 1994, during the opening stages of the Rwandan genocide. She was Rwanda’s first and so far only female prime minister.

3. Juvénal Habyarimana

President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda. Photo by Templeton. .

Juvénal Habyarimana was the 2nd President of Rwanda, serving longer than any other president to date, from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed “Kinani”, a Kinyarwanda word meaning “invincible”.

Habyarimana was a dictator, and electoral fraud was suspected for his unopposed re-elections: 98.99% of the vote on 24 December 1978, 99.97% of the vote on 19 December 1983, and 99.98% of the vote on 19 December 1988.

4. Benjamin Sehene

Benjamin Sehene is a Rwandan author whose work primarily focuses on questions of identity and the events surrounding the Rwandan genocide. He spent much of his life in Canada and currently lives in France. Sehene was born in Kigali to a Tutsi family. His family fled Rwanda in 1963 for Uganda, and he studied in Paris at the Sorbonne in the early 1980s, before emigrating to Canada in 1984.

He currently lives in Paris. He is a member of PEN International. In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, Sehene returned to Rwanda, hoping to better understand what had happened. He subsequently wrote Le Piège ethnique (The Ethnic Trap) (1999), a study of ethnic polemics, and Le Feu sous la soutane (Fire under the Cassock) (2005).

5. Sonia Rolland

Sonia Rolland. Photo by Candice Berton 78. .

Sonia Rolland is  a Rwandan-French actress and was Miss France in the year 2000. She was also a contestant in the Miss Universe competition. She was the first African-born winner of the Miss France pageant. Born in Kigali, Rwanda, to a Rwandan mother and a French father, Rolland and her family fled the country due to safety concerns with the Rwandan genocide instigating, especially since her mother is Tutsi.

In 1990 they moved to the neighboring country of Burundi. With the growing unrest that led to the Burundi Civil War, they moved to France in 1994. At the age 13, Rolland settled with her family in Burgundy in the small town of Cluny.

In October 1999, Sonia Rolland won the “Miss Burgundy” beauty contest that allowed her to compete for the Miss France 2000 title and at the age of 18 she was the first woman of African descent to win. At the Miss Universe 2000 pageant, which took place in Cyprus, Rolland was a top 10 semi-finalist, placing 9th overall.

7. Jackson Niyomugabo

Jackson Niyomugabo is  a Rwandan Olympic swimmer. He is originally from Kibuye in Rwanda’s western region. He grew up swimming in the waters of Lake Kivu on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

His father died early in Jackson’s life, and Jackson found strength from his mother who farms the family’s small plot of land in the mountains above Lake Kivu. Jackson Niyomugabo’s humble background did not afford him opportunities for extensive professional training.

He learned to swim from reading a book provided to him from a high school teacher. He built endurance and stamina by swimming between the mountain top islands in the lake. Jackson competed in the 2007 World Aquatics Championship in Australia, although he did not win a medal. He represented the Republic of Rwanda in swimming during the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics.

8. Kivu Ruhorahoza

Kivu Ruhorahoza. Photo by Olivier Barlet. .

Kivu Ruhorahoza is a Rwandese film director, writer and producer. He is internationally known for his feature film Grey Matter which won the Jury Special Mention for Best Emerging Filmmaker at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and the Ecumenical Jury special mention at the 2011 Warsaw Film Festival.

He also won the Grand Prize of the Tübingen French Film Festival, Best Director and Signis Award of the Cordoba African Film Festival and the Jury Special Prize of the Khouribga Film Festival in Morocco.

Born in Kigali on December 6, 1982, Kivu entered the film career working in 2004 as a production assistant for Eric Kabera, a Rwandan producer, he was then promoted to production manager, where he used to assist a lot of crews coming in Rwanda for news from the BBC or CNN, but his passion was film. Kivu Ruhorahoza arrived on the international film platform in 2007.

9. Pauline Nyiramasuhuko

Pauline Nyiramasuhuko is a Rwandan politician who was the Minister for Family Welfare and the Advancement of Women. She was accused of having incited troops and militia to rape thousands of women during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.

She was tried for genocide and incitement to rape as part of the “Butare Group” at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. In June 2011, she was convicted of seven charges and sentenced to life imprisonment. Nyiramasuhuko is the first woman to be convicted of genocide by the ICTR, and the first person to be convicted of genocidal rape.

10. Rose Kabuye

Rose Kabuye is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Rwandan Army and remains the highest ranking woman ever to serve in her country’s armed forces. She is best known for her work as a freedom fighter in the liberation of Rwanda from 1990 through 1993.

She subsequently became Mayor of Kigali City, Rwandan Chief of State Protocol, and a member of the Rwandan parliament. Because of her participation in the liberation struggle, she was awarded The Rwandan National Liberation Medal and the Campaign Against Genocide Medal.

She was serving as the chief of protocol of Rwandan President Paul Kagame in November 2008 when she was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany on charges that were lifted in March 2009.