JK son, 2 others win gold in Genius Olympiad

Dar es Salaam. Wearing gold medals on their necks, three students from Feza International School, Rashidi Kikwete, Abdulrazack Mkamiya and Abdallah Rubeya landed the Julius Nyerere International Airport at about round 10pm.

They were in the US for a five-day competition, Genius Olympiad Competition, held from June 13 to 17. The contest brought together about 1,200 secondary students from more than 73 countries, 22 students from Feza Schools represented Tanzania.

Rashidi Kikwete, son of former President Jakaya Kikwete and Abdulrazack Mkamiya won gold medal in arts category while Abdalah Rubeya won a short film category.

“It is more than a dream comes true,” says the younger Kikwete. According to him, he was happy when heard for the first time that he would be among students who would travel to USA for the competition. For his part, Rubeya says winning the gold medal in the short film category wasn’t easy, for went through an education system that doesn’t give much attention to ext-ra-curricular activities. He admits he was nervous over the whole thing but he did not give up.“It was not a simple task to accomplish, you can imagine how difficult it was to win against 1200 competitors,” he said

He believes that there is nothing is easy to achieve, saying those who didn’t win in the competition should not give up. Among the parents at the airport was the Former First Lady Salma Kikwete, who said that the win proves that Tanzanians can also do wonders if given a chance. “As a former first lady of this nation and a mother, I am proud to witness these achievements because it proves that our efforts towards provision education are not in futile,” she said.