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By Hanti Otto

Kennedy Gihana, a Burundi refugee who lost all but one family member to genocide, on Tuesday raised his right hand in the Pretoria High Court where he was admitted as an attorney, taking the oath to serve the Republic of South Africa.
After ten years of hardship and hungry nights, Gihana can now stand up for the downtrodden, something he could not do when his Tutsi blood was literally a death sentence.
"I believe it’s better to face obstacles and injustices, than to deny it. From today, I can practice as an attorney and fight for others. I feel like I am flying," he said.
His last obstacle was when the Law Society of the Northern Provinces wanted to oppose his admission as an attorney, because he was not a citizen of the country nor did he have permanent residency.
Gihana and the law firm where he did his clerkship, Friedland and Hart, were prepared to fight this in court, arguing that he had legal refugee status.
"Then the miracle happened. On August 13 2008 home affairs granted me permanent resident status. I collapsed in the office," he said.
Gihana, 36, was born in Burundi to a Rwandan mother and Tutsi father. He went to school in Uganda. When he finished matric in 1993, he returned home.
"Then the war broke out, there was chaos. They killed my dad, my aunts.
"My mother managed to flee to Rwanda with my younger sister and baby brother. Mother and sister were murdered. My brother ended up in an orphanage," Gihana recalled.
Even when the "formally acknowledged" genocide was over, the murders and mayhem still continued, he said.
"Young men were forced to join the army. Tutsis were still being killed. I couldn’t get my brother out of Rwanda. I had to flee for my life," he said.
In 1998, he started on his journey to South Africa, travelling through several countries over three months, often on foot.
"There were many Samaritans en route who gave me a lift or food," Gihana said.
On June 11 1998, he legally crossed Beitbridge, taking a bus to Johannesburg.
He slept on the pavement under boxes, until he met two other Burundians one day and made room for him in the flat they shared with five others.
One loaned him R100 to register for a security guard’s course.
"For 12 hours at night I would open and close a boom, earning R1 800 a month.
"After paying my rent, I saved R100 per month until I had enough to register for the first of 56 law modules at Unisa.
"I was determined to study, even if it took me 40 years," Gihana said.
In 2000, he phoned Felix Fundi, the first counsellor at the Rwandan embassy.
Being a former refugee himself, Fundi gave Gihana work as a security guard at the embassy, enabling him to earn R2 500 per month.
He continued his studies at the University of Pretoria, working at night, attending class by day, surviving on the food Esperance Kagubare, a Rwandan at the embassy, brought him.
Gihana also became involved with Amnesty International.
"Countries were being destroyed. I wanted the world to realise what was happening," he said.
During Gihana’s third year as a law student, Fundi left the embassy and he was jobless again.
"I got a job at the university’s library. I secretly slept there. In the mornings I would wash up at a residency or at auntie Esperance’s."
Three months later, the then dean of the Law Faculty, Professor Eduard Kleyn, gave Gihana a job as student assistant.
"All the money went towards my tuition. I still owe the university R50 000," he laughed.
After completing his studies, he did his clerkship, saying the firm became his family. In 2006, the firm also bought him a ticket to visit his brother, now 14, in Rwanda.
"So many people have helped me to reach this big day. When I woke up this morning, I couldn’t breath. Years of battle have come to an end," he said.

• This article was originally published on page 1 of The Pretoria News on August 27, 2008