IGIHE

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  • US Embassy in Kigali Closed Over Terror Threat

    {{US embassy in Kigali has been closed following a directive from the US government to shutdown 19 other American embassies and consulates across Africa and Asia as a “precautionary step” following a worldwide travel terror alert.}}

    However, Rwanda National Police, declined the fears, saying there was no imminent threat to “security and peace” in Rwanda.

    ACP Theos Badege, the Police spokesman said, “There is no cause to worry because there is no terror threat against Rwanda. The embassy has closed as a decision taken by the Americans. We shall continue to do our work by maintaining security and peace”.

    According to the Embassy website, closure was effective August 5 to Saturday August 9 and announced cancellation of all US citizen appointments and visa appointments.

    “As previously noted, the (US State) Department has been apprised of information that, out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting our installations, indicates we should institute these precautionary steps,” a statement reads in part.

  • Munyagishari Refuses to Speak Kinyarwanda at Trial

    {{On Monday, Bernard Munyagishari 53, a Genocide suspect appeared before the Nyarugunga Primary Court where he rejected a defence Lawyer and refused to speak in Kinyarwanda.}}

    Prosecution Informed Munyagishari of the multiple charges he faces including; planning and organising the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the crime of genocide, conspiracy in the crime of Genocide, rape and murder as a crime against humanity.

    In efforts to prove that Munyagishari was able to communicate in Kinyarwanda, Prosecutor Ndimbwami Rugambwa told Court, “Munyagishari was born and raised in Rwanda, he studied in Rwanda and was also taught in Kinyarwanda.”

    He added ,“Between 1981 and 1982 he was tried in Ruhengeri courts over allegations of having sex with an underage girl and the whole verbatim of this trial is in Kinyarwanda so he should speak in Kinyarwanda.”

    The prosecutor requested court to remand the suspect for 30 days as he prepared his case.

    Presiding Judge Felix Ndahigwa ordered Munyagishari to speak in Kinyarwanda but he remained adamant.

    Munyagishari later told court that he was given a letter by the prosecution asking him to appear in court but never received any summons.

    When his lawyer Donatien Mucyo attempted to address the court, Munyagishari interrupted him, saying he didn’t represent him.

    “So I won’t say anything before this court. And, I don’t have a lawyer so no one should,” he said in French.

    Munyagishari was on July 24, transfered from International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha Tanzania.

    He claims that the Nyarugunga Primary Court had no jurisdiction to try him since he was never summoned by that court.

    Munyagishari claimed that he was arrested because of mistaken identity and that he is a Congolese national.

    He, however, did not bring up this issue in court yesterday.

    Munyagishari was arrested in May 2011 in DR Congo, following an arrest warrant issued by the ICTR.

    He is a former general secretary of the then ruling party, the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), in Gisenyi prefecture and president of the Interahamwe militia.

  • Kagame & Clinton Launch Nutrition Initiative

    {{President Paul Kagame and President Clinton on August 5, announced a nutrition initiative that will result in the establishment of the first factory for fortified baby food in the region.}}

    Launching the initiative as part of his two day working visit, President Clinton reaffirmed his belief in the success of the ongoing partnership with Rwanda:

    “I have an enormous amount of confidence in this project because this is Rwanda and I have never seen you fail.”

    Emphasizing the importance of the initiative, President Kagame pointed to the need to end malnutrition everywhere:

    “Malnutrition is unacceptable in Rwanda and anywhere else in the world. The factory that will be producing the fortified nutritious food will benefit many more people in our region and will lead to the elimination of hunger and malnutrition and improved livelihoods.”

    President Kagame added that addressing malnutrition should be seen as an integral part of achieving socio-economic development:

    “Combating malnutrition effectively should be part and parcel of poverty reduction and economic development. This partnership comes at an opportune moment when we are launching our second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy. The plant to manufacture fortified baby foods will ensure that infants and mothers have access to healthy, nutritious food and will serve as an engine for economic development.”

    Both President Kagame and President Clinton concluded with a commitment to ensure the success of this initiative.

    The first baby food factory will be built with world-class machinery, standards and quality that will produce the wholly nutritious food and ensure access for all Rwandan children.

    The launch of the factory took place as part of President Clinton and Chelsea Clinton’s two day working visit to Rwanda which included a visit to a coffee roasting facility built in partnership with Clinton Hunter Development Initiative and Ministry of Agriculture.

    President Clinton and Chelsea Clinton ended the day with a dinner hosted by President Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame at their residence.

    {Above; President Kagame and President Clinton pose for a group photo with some Human Resources for Health (HRH) }

  • Yann Songo’o: Blackburn Rovers sign free agent defender

    {{Blackburn Rovers manager Gary Bowyer has made Cameroon-born defender Yann Songo’o his 11th summer signing.}}

    Songo’o mutually terminated his contract with Major League Soccer side Sporting Kansas City in June and had been on trial with Rovers.

    The 21-year-old has signed a two-year contract with the Championship club, subject to international clearance.

    Meanwhile, Blackburn are awaiting news of the shoulder injury sustained by Ruben Rochina in the 1-1 draw at Derby.

    The Spanish forward was hurt in the first half of Blackburn’s opening-day fixture at Pride Park on Sunday and was carried off on a stretcher with a suspected dislocated shoulder.

    “He was picking up some great positions and playing ever so well. It disrupted us. We wish him all the best and let’s hope it’s not too serious.”

    Leon Best’s 89th-minute goal, his first for Blackburn, earned Bowyer’s side a deserved point against the Rams.

    wirestory

  • Region wants continent’s role in stabilizing Somalia

    {{Regional heads of state still want other African countries to contribute to the stabilization effort in Somalia under AMISOM.}}

    Currently this role has been played by states under the regional grouping of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as well as Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

    The heads of state and government of the troop-contributing countries under AMISOM as well as Ethiopia and Somalia held a summit in Kampala Uganda between 1st and 4th August.

    The presidential summit was preceded by the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Ministers of Defence.

    After the defeating Al-shabaab, the challenge is now on the Federal Government of Somalia’s ability to establish effective governance structures in the liberated territory.

    Importantly, the summit stressed the need for a regional political process to support Somalia to secure Kismayo seaport and airport.

    Somalia’s leaders have accused the Kenyan troops based in Kismayo of meddling in Somalia’s internal affairs, handpicking local leaders and engaging in the banned charcoal trade, which is a violation of the UN Security Council resolution.

    But following the summit, Kismayo seaport and airport will be handed over to the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS).

    Also, Kismayo, the regional leaders decided, is going to be boosted by a multinational force of Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) and the Somali National Army, to operate alongside the Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF).

    The leaders recognised that the Somali Federal Government should take the lead in promoting reconciliation, establishing local administrations appointing local leaders in the regions and ensuring balanced participation.

    Also, the Somalia National Security Forces will recruit educated Somalis as officer corps, while training of noncommissioned officers has been shifted to Jazeera in Somalia.

    There is also a plan to integrate all militias into the national army except those associated with Al Shabaab. Also, a reconciliation conference is set to be organized, which the process is to begin to establish governance structures in liberated territories.

    Also, the emerging concern is that AMISOM forces have reached their operational limits and are unable to conduct further expansion operations.

    The leaders want the UN Security Council to support AMISOM and the Somalia National Security Forces to enable them reorganize, restructure, increase their forces and mobilize logistical support in order to undertake further stabilization operations.

    AMISOM is presently comprised of 6,000 Ugandan troops, 5,000 from Burundi, 4,000 Kenyans and 1,000 troops from Djibouti. There are also 850 troops from Sierra Leone, with police units from Nigeria and Uganda.

    NV

  • Kenya’s Deputy President Warns Chiefs Over Teen Pregnancies

    {{Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto has warned members of Provincial Administration in Mt Elgon and other parts of the country, who fail to report cases of child molestation.}}

    Ruto said chiefs and assistants chiefs, who fail to identify suspects, who impregnate underage girls will be held liable.

    Speaking after an inter-denominational church service at the weekend at Kapsokwony Primary School, Ruto said chiefs must play a critical role to stem the vice.

    “For every pregnant schoolgirl, the chiefs and their assistants should be able to identify the culprit responsible. It is against the law and everyone, who engages in sex with minors should be brought to book and put behind bars,” he said.

    “We should act tough and deal firmly with the culprits to eradicate this debilitating vice. Once some people are arrested and prosecuted, then it will serve as a deterrent to others.”

    Standard

  • Africa Urged to Drop National Sovereignty Idea for Integration

    {{Africa has been urged to drop the idea of national sovereignty for regional integration and pursue actions to benefit mutual interests of neighbouring countries thus unlocking the continent’s potential.}}

    The remarks were made by the South African minister for the presidency Trevor Manuel in Uganda where he was guest speaker at the 21st Joseph Mubiru Memorial Lecture at the Serena Kampala Hotel under the theme “Unlocking Africa’s Growth Potential; Aligning decision-making to implementation and delivery.”

    He said pan African organisations should be boosted and governments must implement strategic policies and be accountable to the public.

    “Each African country should exploit its area of competitive advantage. This will increase intra-African trade. Sovereign perfection is not the key, we need regional economic communities,” he said.

    He noted that Africa should build accountable institutions, make strategic policies, diversify economically, increase industrialisation, join regional economic groups, improve the quality of education and tackle unemployment.

    “We need to be the generators of our own knowledge, especially at university level. Infrastructure deficit is an area that can slow economic growth,” Manuel said.

    {(Left)South African minister for the presidency Trevor Manuel}

  • Journalists in Tanzania Threatened

    {{Journalists in Tanzania face increasing threats and lack government protection, with at least ten attacks against the media in the past year, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.}}

    “Despite Tanzania’s reputation for transparency and democracy, its citizens are being denied vital information,” the New York-based CPJ warned in a report criticising “a rise in anti-press attacks set against a backdrop of repressive laws.”

    The CPJ documented 10 “serious anti-press attacks and threats” since September 2012.

    Those include the killing of cameraman Daudi Mwangosi, hit by a tear-gas canister while covering demonstrations in September, and the severe beating of editor Absalom Kibanda in March, in which he was blinded in one eye and had part of his finger hacked off.

    “The deterioration of press conditions has coincided with jitters among members of a ruling party unused to criticism and unaccustomed to political challenge,” said CPJ report author Tom Rhodes.

    Tanzania’s ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, Revolutionary Party) has been in power for decades.

    There was no immediate response from the authorities.

    “The government of Tanzania’s crackdown on freedom of the press and expression is a clear sign that it feels threatened ahead of the 2015 presidential and parliamentary elections,” Rhodes added.

    The CPJ said that while Tanzania’s government has pledged to reform media laws, little has been put into practice.

    {CapitalFM}

  • Armed robbery at sea growing in Ghana’s coast

    {{The recognition of piracy by West African societies as an acceptable economic activity that transforms lives has been identified by security experts as one of the challenges hindering the fight against the activities of pirates.}}

    Dr Kwesi Aning, Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra, says the legal framework to control the activities of pirates are also “not up to speed”.

    Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Tuesday, Dr Aning said the threat of pirate activities in Ghana’s territorial waters is “real, it’s growing and it will continue to grow”.

    He indicated that piracy is purely a business venture with businessmen from countries including Ghana financing it.

    He said because people were not seeing the criminal aspect of piracy, which he described as armed robbery at sea, the threat was put on a back burner until Nigeria and Benin started feeling the impact of pirate attacks.

    According to him, since 2012 piracy attacks at the Gulf of Guinea have become more frequent than that at the Gulf of Aden. The only operational difference, he noted, was that while pirates operating on the coast of Sudan (Gulf of Aden) seize vessels with their crew and demand ransom for their release, in the case of West Coast, the pirates siphon oil, steal goods aboard vessels, and take charge of sophisticated communication gadgets, which he said is “more threatening”.

    Dr Aning said that navies in the sub region are not able to track the pirate activities because the pirates use more modern and faster outboard motors.

    Admitting that armed robbery at sea cannot be fought by one country, the security expert charged governments to provide their navies with the necessary financial support and tools such as surveillance aircraft and faster boats. Otherwise “we will be laughing at the wrong side of our mouth soon”, he warned.

    He said the economic cost of piracy in West Africa is estimated at two billion US dollars a year.

    {myjoyonline}

  • Another Zimbabwe Electoral Official Resigns

    {{A second Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) official has resigned following a disputed election that saw President Robert Mugabe securing a seventh consecutive term.}}

    This comes as Botswana is pushing for an audit of Zimbabwe’s election results saying a preliminary report from its observer mission showed that polls were manipulated.

    Botswana’s Foreign Affairs minister Phandu Skelemani said the country was concerned that Zimbabwe’s vote had not measured up to Southern African Development Community (SADC) guidelines.

    “Various incidents and circumstances were revealed that call into question whether the entire electoral process, and thus its final result, can be recognised as having been fair, transparent and credible,” he said in rare African criticism of the vote.

    Back in Harare, Professor Joe Feltoe reportedly told President Robert Mugabe in a letter that he was returning to his job at the University of Zimbabwe where he was a law lecturer.

    His resignation came days after another lawyer, Mr Mkhululi Nyathi, threw in the towel last week citing what he described as the unprofessional manner the elections were conducted.

    {{Court challenge}}

    President Mugabe won 61 per cent of the vote but his main rival and outgoing prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai has refused to concede defeat saying the polls were rigged.

    Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Tuesday said it will file court applications challenging results of the elections in at least 100 constituencies.

    President Mugabe’s victory will also be challenged by Friday, in a move that will delay his inauguration.

    “We are pursuing the legal, diplomatic and political routes,” MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said.

    “As we speak we are compiling the dossier on the irregularities of the polls before, during and after the elections.

    “On the legal route by Friday we should have filed the main court application challenging the results challenging the results of the presidential election and over 100 other applications challenging the outcome of the polls in House of Assembly constituencies.”

    MDC is alleging voter intimidation and manipulation of voters during the July 31 elections.

    According to Zimbabwe’s new constitution, President Mugabe can only be sworn in after all electoral court challenges have been cleared and this has to be completed within 14 days.

    NMG