President Kagame Warns Against Lavish Wedding Spending.

He delivered the message on October 21, 2026, during an interaction with thousands of young people at BK Arena, where he shared the story of a young man he had supported through education and employment.

President Kagame said he had raised the young man professionally and paid for his education up to postgraduate level. However, he had sometimes noticed habits he considered harmful and tried to advise him against them. 

“Despite how we lived together, I noticed certain things about him and tried to tell him, ‘These habits will ruin you, yet you lack nothing. I can provide whatever you need, so there is no reason for you to ruin yourself,’” President Kagame said. 

When the young man grew older and decided to get married, he approached President Kagame seeking financial assistance, saying he was struggling to raise money for the wedding.

President Kagame said the man handed him a paper listing the expenses he wanted covered, with the total coming to nearly Rwf10 million. 

“I looked at it and asked him, ‘If I gave you this money, would all these problems be solved?’ He said, ‘Absolutely,’” the President recalled.

Kagame said he later learned that the young man had approached several people, including businesspeople, for financial support and intended to hold the wedding at a luxurious hotel. 

The President told him he would help organise a successful wedding but questioned why he should spend heavily on a hotel he did not own.

Instead, Kagame offered him a beautiful garden at Village Urugwiro, promising to arrange an elegant tent and have security officials allow invited guests to attend. He also helped the groom and members of his wedding party obtain outfits, which they travelled abroad to purchase.

The young man estimated that about 600 people would attend the wedding. President Kagame said he warned him that some guests might drink so much that they would eventually forget whose wedding they had attended. 

He also decided that alcohol would not be served at the venue. Instead, guests would be offered a variety of juices, coffee, tea and soft drinks. 

Kagame said he promised to give the young man the Rwf10 million he had requested, but only after the wedding.

“I told him I wanted him to use that Rwf10 million after the wedding to find something that would help build his household, rather than have people drink it away until nothing was left. That is what I did,” he said.

President Kagame said he asked the man what he felt he had lost by not spending the Rwf10 million on the celebration. The man replied that he had lost nothing. 

The President urged people to make decisions that contribute to their long-term wellbeing rather than those that undermine it. He also encouraged Rwandans to advise one another when they see behaviour that could be harmful. 

“A person is the one who builds themselves, starting with themselves, or the one who destroys themselves. Family and country are also important, especially when people guide one another and say, ‘Stop that.’ Do not simply accept everything. At some point, tell someone, ‘Stop,’” President Kagame said.