Hate speech against the unvaccinated: Rwanda isolates its unvaccinated citizens

Episode two: My experience with the media and journalists' behaviour towards the unvaccinated in Rwanda on the day the government started enforcing measures against the unvaccinated in Rwanda.

My name is Kelly Rwamapera, about 40 years old, a father of three, a journalist and a proud Protestant.

It is Monday 20^th December 2021 the day the Government of Rwanda started enforcing the directives that restrict the unvaccinated from accessing services including restaurants, bars, churches, public transport and many public services.

A famous YouTube Channel among the Adventist community in the country (Itabaza TV) has contacted me for an interview to comment on, among other things, whether Coronavirus vaccination is mandatory or optional in Rwanda and my opinion on what it should be.

It’s not my first time to be hosted on this YouTube Channel TV, not because I know much but mainly because few are willing to say anything contrary to the adamant government directives.

People are also scared by the image of assassinated character the media has created for anyone who dares to mention people’s rights to their own bodies, so they silently disagree.

My schedules are easy to make because I have no job; we plan to have the interview in the afternoon before a meeting I'm to have with someone in the evening.

But as usual, I wake up early and go to the press house where there are free computers and the internet to read news and write something for this blog.

I find a few journalists in the vibrant newsroom where both knowledgeable and poor journalists come together.

They all know that I’m not vaccinated and they ask me what am I going to do as the government steadily tightens its iron fist on the unvaccinated.

I tell them that I knew the uncouth directives would come and mention some more to come and that I’m ready to fall into the abyss that the government has dug for its unvaccinated people.

The journalists throw jokes at me, mentioning some other journalists who have not yet been vaccinated, good jokes actually one will definitely miss when the newsroom gets infested with the idea that the unvaccinated are a threat to the vaccinated bodies.

One journalist, Louise, a very good friend of mine, in fact, one who recently gave me money to take back my children to school, stands up and warns that the government will not tolerate those who don’t want to get the jabs because of the “primitive faiths”.

As a law student in Kigali and owner of a law reporting media house in Rwanda, I would expect her to remember the Nuremberg Code and Rwanda’s law regarding consent to medication which we have often discussed together in the newsroom several times.

Some journalists show remorse at the fate that awaits the unvaccinated while others like my friend Charles laugh to scorn.

Journalists tend to stand in the middle between the public and the government but in this case of vaccination, journalists such as Ingabire a news anchor at the national television go far to suggest to the police spokesman to get somewhere to lock the unvaccinated, unethically showing her support for a story of one party in a story she is telling the public.

The Youngman Sammy, the owner of Itabaza TV comes to tell me that he will not advertise the interview via his social media, that he had not yet got a good title that cannot alarm authorities.

During the interview, Sammy draws us into commenting on a letter a teacher who refused vaccination wrote to the local authorities who had asked for his explanation why he refused vaccination.

The teacher in a rural school was arguing that he wasn’t feeling comfortable getting vaccinated because his conscience told him that the act of limiting the unvaccinated from selling or buying was evident that the vaccination has something to do with the Biblical Image of the Beast.

My argument is that authorities and those who do not have reverence for the authority of the Holy Scripture should look at the teacher’s statement as his natural convictions from one’s conscience, any sensible authority has to respect.

After the interview, I board a motorcycle to go to a meeting with someone. Motorcycles have not been stopped from transporting the unvaccinated.

In the next episode, I share my experience of how a colleague wanted to buy me some lunch at a restaurant and got stuck without the vaccination certificates.

Click here for the Episode One

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