CDS Gen Mubarakh Muganga speaking on Monday in Gatsibo District
KIGALI — In a striking declaration of the military’s duty to its citizens, Gen. Mubarakh Muganga, Rwanda’s Chief of Defence Staff, said on Monday that the country’s armed forces would mobilize extraordinary resources — even as many as 1,000 troops — to protect the life of a single Rwandan.
“The Rwandan citizen is of paramount importance,” Gen. Muganga told residents gathered in Ngarama Sector, Kabeho Village, in Gatsibo District. “Everything we are doing today, and all the time, is for your utmost benefit. Just to give you an idea of what it means, we can send as many as 1,000 troops to the battlefield just so one Rwandan can survive.”
His remarks came during the launch of the Defence and Security Citizen Outreach Programme 2026 (DSCOP26), a nationwide initiative led by the Rwanda Defence Force and Rwanda National Police.
The three-month program runs through and forms part of the annual activities leading up to Kwibohora32, Rwanda’s 32nd Liberation Day commemoration on July 4.
The event in Gatsibo was one of several launches held simultaneously across the country.
It began with a large-scale tree-planting exercise — more than 28,000 seedlings across about 18 hectares — highlighting the program’s emphasis on environmental conservation alongside broader human security efforts.
Gen. Muganga was joined by Philippe Kwitonda, the Director General of Land, Water and Forestry at the Ministry of Environment, as well as local officials.
The army chief framed the outreach not as charity but as an extension of Rwanda’s broader security doctrine.
True safety, he said, includes protection not only from external threats but also from internal hardships such as hunger and poverty.
“You cannot say you have security if you go to bed hungry,” he told the crowd, urging residents to form cooperatives, participate in environmental conservation and work closely with security institutions to sustain peace and promote development.
The outreach program reflects a long-standing policy under the administration of President Paul Kagame, in which the Rwanda Defence Force and the Rwanda National Police serve dual roles: defending national sovereignty while contributing directly to social and economic development.
This year’s edition, valued at more than Rwf 2.5 billion in planned support, includes the construction of homes for vulnerable families, classrooms and bridges, water systems, early childhood development centers, and health outreach programs.
It also provides livestock donations and support to community cooperatives.
Across the country, the program’s launch took different forms, tailored to local priorities.
In Kamonyi District in the Southern Province, Defence Minister Juvenal Marizamunda broke ground for 10 new classrooms, administrative offices and a laboratory at Kigese Technical Secondary School.
“Security and development go hand in hand,” he said, urging residents to maintain the projects through community work, known locally as umuganda.
In Nyabihu District in the Western Province, the Inspector General of Police Felix Namuhoranye joined Western Province Governor Jean Bosco Ntibitura and the Rwanda Defence Force’s 3rd Division Commander Eugene Nkubito in laying the foundation for 30 houses for vulnerable families.
In the Northern Province, in Gicumbi District, Minister of State for Health Yvan Butera and Military Health Service Chief of Staff Ephrem Rurangwa launched medical services and distributed smartphones to community health workers, part of an effort to modernize rural health care.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Province, Minister of State for Agriculture Solange Uwituze handed over cows and goats to 32 vulnerable families in Kayonza District.
In Nyagatare District, Interior Security Minister Vincent Biruta oversaw a range of activities that included environmental protection, health services, infrastructure projects, livestock distribution, housing construction and cooperative development.
The outreach was under the theme “Ubufatanye bw’Abaturage, Ingabo na Polisi by’u Rwanda” — partnership between citizens, the army and the police.
Photographs from the launch in Gatsibo, shared by the Rwanda Defence Force, the district authorities and state media, showed Gen. Muganga planting trees alongside residents and speaking with community leaders.
The images reinforce a broader narrative of unity and shared responsibility in a country that has placed reconstruction and stability at the center of national life since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
As the program unfolds over the coming months, its projects will gradually be completed and handed over to communities — reinforcing the message that Rwanda’s security institutions are intended not only to defend the nation’s borders, but also to safeguard and uplift the lives of the citizens within them.
