The winner of Miss Rwanda 2022 beauty pageant Divine Nshuti Muheto will retain the crown until 2024, an
authoritative source confirmed Monday.
Since last year, an incident affected Miss Rwanda contest and took away the confidence it had already built as a key entertainment and luxurious event.
The incident is the arrest of the organizer, Ishimwe Dieudonnée a.k.a Prince Kid who heads Rwanda Inspiration Back Up.
He was arrested early 2022 a couple of weeks after the finals of Miss Rwanda on allegation of sexual harassment and seeking sexual favor among contestants of several seasons.
Prince Kid was declared innocent in August 2022 and was released by the verdict of Nyarugenge Intermediate Court, but the Prosecution appealed this decision. The reading is due on March 31.
Following the arrest of the organizer however, the Ministry of Sports and Culture announced in May 2022, that had taken over organization of the contest.
Commenting on the new decision, the Director of Artistic Development in Rwanda Cultural Heritage Academy (RCHA), Alice Kabasoni said that Miss Muheto will retain the crown this year but will not paid the same
amount as for her reign.
“It means that the sponsor provides support for a period of 12 months; afterwards Miss Rwanda does not receive any rewards [from sponsor] because what she was promised in contract is for one year,” she said.
Ishimwe has been the boss of Rwanda Inspiration Back Up since 2009.
Details indicate that suspect, cornered at several occasions the contestants in Miss Rwanda pageants, promising then that he had the ability to help them sail through the competition and win the crown.
Following the incident, Rwanda’s ministry of Youth and Culture decided to suspend the beauty pageant contest.
Reacting to the incident, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said that even though the issue [of sextortion] was reported in Miss Rwanda, in other institutions including in central government and in the army,
sexual abuse is becoming a concern.
Speaking during a recent ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) – Inkotanyi congress, Kagame observed that this issue has even reached schools where teachers give marks for sex.
CU/abj/APA