Jolly Mutesi was elected Miss Rwanda 27th February 2016. She was the first beauty queen to represent Rwanda at the Miss World competition in 2016. She loves giving back to the society and patriotism, she says, is embedded within her. The diva has aspired and worked towards bridging the gap between the youth and the government so that young people can participate more in government programmes. She looks up to Louise Mushikiwabo, Minister for Foreign Affairs as her role model.
The diva has announced that she is planning to release a new film documentary about her life before, during and post winning the title of Miss Rwanda 2016. During her reign as Miss Rwanda 2016, she participated in Miss World 2016’s Beauty with A Purpose competition and emerged as one of the Top 25 finalist. She engaged in organizing local debate competition and entrepreneurship advisory sessions, which increased her public perception to stand out both locally and internationally.
Jolly was accused of bleaching her skin, an act that she denied and during her job as one of the judges at the following Miss Rwanda contests she was accused of being ‘harsh’ to the contestants during the Q&A pre-selection stage, raising a social media debate on many platforms. She is currently a judge at Miss Rwanda contest and feels that it’s time that she comes out and let the world know her side of the story.
Jolly feels that her documentary film that will include her real-life struggles and clarify the accusations that were put on her will be used to inspire other youth and tell her life story before becoming, as and after being Miss Rwanda. “There are many people who write to me telling me that I inspire them, but I am sure that I didn’t have an easy path, and which doesn’t define a person. There are a lot of things said about me which aren’t true. Sometimes they say that I am an arrogant person, which gives a different perception of who I am,” Mutesi told.
The former Miss Rwanda mentioned that she developed the idea of turning her life into a movie this year and expects to inspire young women to strive at attaining their life dreams and deal with their fears such as being a subject of public talk, which in many cases deters women reaching their full potential. The documentary, produced in English, is already completed, and plans on releasing it on 13th May 2020 which is Wednesday of this week. Jolly also mentioned that her dream is to see the documentary go beyond Rwanda and its neighbouring countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.