Author: Elie Imanishimwe

The award winner was chosen from among the world’s top lots from the 2017/2018 harvests in nine countries, whose growers attended a gala at the Rainbow Room last night.

A separate “Coffee Lover’s Choice” award, presented by United Airlines, was also conferred to Ms. Muzika on behalf of Ngororero Coffee Washing Station

Alongside Rwanda, coffee beans from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India and Nicaragua were chosen to compete as finalists, following intensive analysis at illy’s Quality Lab at its Trieste, Italy headquarters. All nine finalists, spanning four continents, are ingredients in the legendary illy blend, celebrated for decades for its unparalleled richness, complexity and consistency.

“It is an honor and a pleasure to recognize Ngororero Coffee Washing Station and Ms. Muzika for their achievement, and that of all of our finalists, who are focused on producing the highest-quality coffee through sustainable methods,” said Andrea Illy, Chairman of illycaffé.

“This week celebrates an even greater theme, and that is the enormous dedication, pride and talent of the world’s 25 million coffee-growing families, who fill our cups, and replenish our souls, every day.” On Monday, to mark International Coffee Day, illycaffè focused its efforts on honoring women coffee growers, who are responsible for nearly half of the world’s coffee production.

The Director General of RAB, Dr Patrick Karangwa says that there are strategies in place to tackle this problem including increasing the number of storage facilities, targeting to reduce post-harvest losses from 16% to 5% by 2024.

“The government has has planned to help farmers get adequate storage facilities in order to protect the produce from deterioration before it gets to the market and harvest warehouses,” he said.

Farmers also say the problem of inadequate post-harvest handling including drying yards and storage facilities results in produce quality deterioration and other losses.

Candide Nyiraminani a farmer from Northern Province says that poor maize drying facilities affects quality.

“We still have the problem of maize storage facilities. Maize storage facilities are still few and we cannot all afford drying facilities. Often, drying facilities are given to cooperatives and are not enough for them too.” She said.

She added that there are other farmers who think that some drying facilities are idle, but they are not able to make use of them because they are far from them.

She suggests that adequate drying facilities should be established in the areas where there are large fields of maize in order to better process the production instead of deteriorating or being simply lost.

The students went to Ruhango District offices to register their grievances with local government authorities including; being denied scholastic equipment they need in their practical courses, incessant corporal punishments by the head-teacher, Mr Wilton Ndayisenga.

In an interview with IGIHE, Ruhango District Mayor Valens Habarurema said that they have addressed the problem.

“We met students and they told us the problems that they have including being beaten which incited them to protest. They said one of them was beaten but we couldn’t see the alleged victim, he had already gone home,” he said.

The mayor said that they have suspended the school headmaster and his deputy. The school is now headed by the director of studies.

The headmaster Wilton Ndayisenga Wilton, said the problem arose from finding one of the students with a mobile telephone which he refused to surrender to school authorities on request and was therefore asked to leave the school premises.

Ndayisenga further says that those who protested are refugees from different refugee camps who came to for a one year course at the school.

“I told the school bursar to give him money and go back home if he refused to give the phone. They gave him Rwf7000 but he refused to take the money saying it was little. When I grabbed him to get him out of the school, he gave punched me,” he said.

Ndayisenga said that he did not fight back but the student destroyed school furniture, eventually took the money and left school, attracting a crowd of other students that joined him.

Mayor Habarurema said they have asked Rwanda Investigation Bureau to investigate the matter.

“We have requested RIB to make an investigation. Students complain that they do not have school uniforms, those who study tailoring complain they do not have working materials while those who study hairdressing say they are not given consumables.
Collège Adventiste de Gitwe accommodates more than 500 students.

The call was made on this Friday, as teachers joined the rest of the world to celebrate International Teacher’s Day under the theme: “A Professional and Competent Teacher is a Foundation of Quality Education”, in Rwamagana District.

Faustin Harerimana, the secretary general of Rwanda Teachers Association requested the government to support the teacher’s child with free education from primary to university.

He praised current laws that came in support of teachers such as the one on maternity leave and advised that teachers in private and nursery schools also sign job contracts.

“Working without contract threatens some of the employees’ rights one of which is not being paid during holidays.” He said.

Teachers have however appreciated such interventions as timely salaries, Umwalimu Sacco which enables them access financial credits, Girinka Program and accommodation for teachers, among others.

Jérémie Rwicaninyoni, representative of teachers in the District is very grateful to President Paul Kagame for having introduced 9 & 12 years’ basic education enabling all Rwandan children to study at short distances, given lunch at school, staff accommodation and other social protection programs like Girinka.

He also thanked the president for catch-up programs intended for teachers to pursue university education.

Among the hurdles that the teachers have, Rwicaninyoni said that there are parents who do not check on their children’s learning and leave them under the guidance of teachers only. He suggested a special campaign for parents’ participation in the learning process of their children.

The trio suspected of taking part in the death of Niyitanga include Sgt Jean Bosco Rutare, Sadda Musanabandi the wife of the late Niyitanga and Louis Nsanzabarinda who headed security- irondo-operations during the night the incident took place.

Prosecution started by charging Sgt Jean Bosco Rutare with shooting the deceased, killing instantly him.

Prosecution also accused Louis Nsanzabarinda who headed security operations of calling soldiers telling them that they had been attacked by a burglar, who, on arrival, shot him dead.

The prosecution said that after Niyitanga died, the accused put a radio and money on the victim’s body to appear as if he had been shot in the act of robbing.

When he was given time to defend himself, Sgt Jean Bosco Rutare admitted that he was responsible for the shooting. He apologized to the family of the victim and the Rwandan army.

He added that he killed the deceased because he was defending himself and had not planned it.

Meanwhile, Sadda Musanabandi told court that her husband came home around 18h, while she was asleep and started shouting, broke a radio, took Rwf20,000 and left.

She said that she immediately followed him, saw him taking a motorcycle and also took one to his parents’ house but when she reached there no one answered.

Musanabandi said her husband came back home around 21h, and repeatedly banged on the door. She called upon the village leader, who in turn called the security operatives on duty. When they arrived Niyitanga resisted them and they called other people dressed in black. She said she could not tell if they were soldiers or police officers.

When they started beating her husband she called police to arrest them instead of killing her husband. Her neighbour called Valentina called her with bad news that her husband had been shot dead.

Another accused, Nzabarinda pleaded not guilty to all the accusations against him. Jean Bosco Butare’s lawyer, Yussuf Ndutiye said that his client was called in the night and told that there was a security breach and on arrival found security personnel fleeing the crime scene. He said his client didn’t run away because if he so did, he would not be doing his duty.

he court announced that it will make a resolution on October 8th 2018.

Busingye made the remark Thursday while opening a consultative workshop organised by RIB and LAF on service delivery under theme “Synergy and Professionalism, a sustainable path to fair justice”.

The aim of the workshop that took place at Kigali Marriott Hotel, is to discuss issues relating to Rwanda Investigation Bureau’s service delivery for fair justice.

He said that RIB is responsible for preventing, investigating and arresting suspects but it cannot do it without cooperation with other institutions including private institutions, citizens and civil society.

That synergy, Busingye said, is what will make citizens feel more satisfied because they will have sustainable security.

He said that the Government of Rwanda established mechanisms to prevent crimes and strengthened security of Rwandans.

He emphasized that the government prioritises investment acceleration, tourism, technology, fighting against corruption and environment preservation, among others. However, he noted that no country can achieve all these milestones if it doesn’t prevent crimes.

“The role of civil society, if I may make a suggestion, will need to align to the country trajectory I described above and work to achieve it,” he said.

Andrews Kananga, the executive director of the Legal Aid Forum (LAF) said that RIB is a new institution that needs support to build capacity and improve on implementation of its mandate.

RIB Secretary General, Col. Jeannot Ruhunga said that the role of civil societies and other institutions is needed, especially in preventing crimes.

“If we don’t get support from other institutions to combat crimes, we are obviously only fighting what was done without being preventive,” he said.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Mushikiwabo and Asselborn discussed on how they will strengthen ties between Luxembourg and Rwanda, especially in economic cooperation.

Luxembourg has been supporting implementation of development projects for nearly 25 years in Rwanda, particularly in the areas of integrated rural development and health, where the Grand Duchy has played a pioneering role in the field of modernisation of agriculture and vocational training in rural areas, hospital infrastructures and the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Luxembourg will continue to support Rwanda in the field of capacity building in finance with initial cooperation having been established between the Luxembourg House of Training and the Rwandan Bankers Association to continue providing training in the banking sector and to support the establishment of a Rwandan Banking Institute. In order to further strengthen economic and trade relations, the relevance of a non-double taxation agreement was raised.

Rwanda and Luxembourg relations date back from the era of Archduchess Marie Astrid of Luxembourg sister of Henri of Luxembourg who lived in Rwamagana, Rwanda from 1974 to 1975 where she helped the establishment of a school of nursing.

The eight-in-one housing model is ‘Made in Rwanda’ product. The bricks are made in Nzove Cell, the cement is from CIMERWA while the ventilators, kitchen ware and finishing are locally made in Gakinjiro. It highlights how to successfully design a home with a smaller footprint, creating a home that is a comfortable for a family.
The housing model is in line with the country’s program of upgrading slum areas and will be up-scaled to other slummy areas.

While inaugurating the housing model, Marie Chantal Rwakazina, Kigali City mayor said that building with products made in Rwanda will create more jobs.

“This housing model highlights that Made in Rwanda construction materials can partly provide a solution to accommodation and employment challenges in the country. It is also possible that it can generate jobs for many while building houses at affordable prices,” she said.

Building houses with materials from Rwanda is one of the strategies in the country’s 7-year National Transformation Program. The local material use is promoted under the auspices of Swiss programme Promoting Climate Responsive Building Material and Off-farm Employment in the Great Lakes Region (PROECCO).

PROECCO targets to collaborate with the private sector to generate 1.5 million jobs, where between 30, 000-50,000 jobs will be generated by brick making factories.

The project will also help the country to reduce the cost of imported construction materials by creating more than 100 permanent jobs in brick-making. The country will thus be able to save $300,000 every year, the money which used to be spent on importing construction bricks.

PROECCO will also see Rwanda reduce reliance on biomass fuels by 60% and will promote a new technological mechanism that utilizes less fuel.

In the project, 100,000 affordable houses will be built every year until in 2024 when the 7-year program will end. It will reduce construction costs by 40%.

Swiss ambassador to Rwanda based in Kenya, Ralf Heckner said that the inaugurated housing model gave jobs to 150 people. He said that it also highlights a sustainable way of solving housing problems in Rwanda.