It also reads that Akagera National Park earned USD $ 2 million (over Rwf 1.8 billion) in 2018 and expressed optimism for an increased number of tourists in 2019.
The management of the park revealed that such earnings enable the park to be self-financed at 75 % and sustain activities beneficial to neighboring communities.
“A new center is set to be launched to harbor different activities including the establishment of vegetable gardens, beekeeping, and poultry, tree nurseries, a shop for handcrafts among others to start this year. They are all meant to help neighboring residents to improve wealth, increase yields and access to markets,” reads the statement.
Concerning service delivery improvement the management has said that Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) is building four telecommunications towers in the park to upgrade the network.
They are being built nearby Akagera Game Lodge, Rwisirabo, at Mutumba hill and Muhororo.
It is said that the words written on the wreath read ‘We will always Forget you.”
The wreath was laid at the memorial yesterday as residents in Ntarama sector commemorated for the 25th time the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, an event that was preceded by a walk to remember.
Following commemoration activities, a genocide survivor who stayed around inspecting the place where relatives are buried saw the wreath, got traumatized and started ripping the wreath. Residents rushed to the scene, assembled parts of the wreath where they found genocide ideology words.
The Executive Secretary of Ntarama sector, Marthe Uwamugira has told IGIHE that security officials were alerted and are hunting for the suspect.
“We are still searching from those who took pictures and sharing information that might lead to the arrest of the culprit. We have also alerted security officials,” she said.
Uwamugira warned residents against genocide ideology and urged them to be watchful reporting whoever is identified with such destructive ideas.
It is said the man committed the murder and suicide after attempting to kill his wife who fled the home.
The incident took place around 9 pm yesterday after heated arguments with her 26-year old wife, Tuyizere.
IGIHE has learned that after escaping the husband, Tuyizere alerted neighbors who returned to the house with her and found the man hang and the baby dead.
Police spokesperson in Kigali city, CIP Marie Goretti Umutesi, has told IGIHE that the man was known as a drug addict.
“They had no family conflicts known but the man was a famous cannabis smoker. We always advise spouses to report conflicts to family friends or seek assistance from officials to mend relations,” she explained.
The incident took place yesterday as the six mine workers were on mining activities in Mageragere sector.
The mine belonging to ETMIN Ltd was licensed six months ago.
John Kanyangira, the director of mining inspection unit at Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board (RBM) has told IGIHE that the investigation is underway to establish the cause of the accident.
“The mine collapsed as six mine people entered it to do their work. Four died while two of them sustained minor injuries. Following the accident, we are seeking support from Rwanda.
Investigation Bureau to identify the cause. The owner of the mining company is subject to be brought to justice if there is evidence that he neglected workers’ protection,” he said.
The majority of genocide ideology cases during the commemoration week held from 7-13 April 2019 were related to hurting words compared to previous years characterized by killing livestock of genocide survivors and destroying while their houses.
RIB received 72 allegations of genocide ideology cases during the commemoration week preceding 100 days of mourning. So far 69 suspects have been arrested.
The Southern Province accounts for 25 of the allegations, Eastern has 25, Western has 3, Northern Province has 7 while 10 allegations are from Kigali city.
The spokesperson of RIB, Modeste Mbabazi has told IGIHE that prevalence genocide ideology has reduced compared to previous years.
“It is evidenced in the increased participation in commemoration talks. Even those who were reluctant came in large numbers and gave testimonies and revealed where remains of victims are located,” he said.
Mbabazi explained that there were reduced numbers of trauma cases during the commemoration period.
“Before genocide ideology was propagated by intellectuals but current suspects are not people with advanced education. They do it in bars or for other reasons. Today it is mainly manifested through spoken word. Before, they would beat genocide survivors, throw stones at them, destroy their houses or chop their livestock among others,” he said. 72 genocide ideology allegations were filed during the commemoration week in 2018 down from 114 of 2017.
The commutation request was part of the message Catholic Church bishops in Rwanda delivered to Christians for the 25th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi on 7th April 2019 as commemoration activities began. The message was read in all churches across the country.
Following criticism of the request, the Catholic Church released the apology statement on 13th April 2019 as the commemoration week closed.
“There are clauses from the letter that hurt people especially the ones concerning the request for commuting sentences of old and sick genocide convicts,” reads part of the statement signed by the President of Episcopal Conference in Rwanda, Bishop Philippe Rukamba.
“We regret that the message hurt people especially considering the period during which it was communicated. This was not our intention. We apologize for having communicated the message during the commemoration period,” adds the statement.
Speaking to IGIHE, the president of IBUKA, Prof Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu has said that the apology of the Catholic Church is wanting because it sought apology for communicating the message in commemoration period only. He explained that the church should be aware that these convicts were not remorseful they were given enough time to do so.
“Why does the Catholic Church want the convicts to be pardoned yet they are reluctant to repent. Our concern is beyond what the church is apologizing for. The Catholic Church may seek apology over communicating the message during the commemoration period with the intention of doing it again after this period. We blame two things. The time during which the apology is sought and asking for a reduced sentence of these convicts” added Prof Dusingizemungu.
He explained that “The statement of the Catholic Church is wanting. We think there are people who don’t feel the severity of genocide crime. Those people in advanced ages are the ones who developed genocide ideology. Why don’t they want them punished? Their sickness might persist after release because they are old. Do they want someone handed a life sentence to be commuted? It is like abolishing the punishment, or they might not be aware of the severity of genocide crime.”
As he attended the commemoration of politicians killed during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi on 13th April 2019 at Rebero, the Executive Secretary the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) Dr. Jean Damascène Bizimana criticized the request of Catholic Church.
“When there are people requesting to release these older inmates yet they are the ones who poisoned Rwanda, it is suffocating the truth,” he said.
The work of art portrays a standing tall man holding a straw drinking from a vessel laid on the head of a person kneeling in front of him.
The sculpture was shown on 12th April 2019 at the launch of works of art exhibition at the “Rwanda Art Museum” in Kanombe to run for 100 days.
The exhibition taking place at the house of former president Habyarimana is held for the first time since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi was stopped.
It seeks to use arts to explain horrors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, educating history to the youth and preserving it to build hope for the future.
24 works of art were exhibited at the event. These include works from nine artistes and other youth selected by the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) through competitions. They are additional to 164 works of arts existing at the Rwanda Art Museum in Kanombe.
Ambassador Masozera requested artistes to use their talent positively unlike the past where arts were used to sow genocide ideology.
He explained that the sculpture was found in the sitting room of Habyarimana when RPF Inkotanyi soldiers conquered Kanomba in May 1994. It was among other works of arts displayed in his house some of which having shapes of a snake. “ This work of arts is displayed for the first time as one of the tools that were used to sow hatred among Rwandans. We were told that Habyarimana and his wife (Kanziga Agathe) used it to show to guests that Tutsis tyrannized Hutus to the extent of drinking beer from vessels laid on their heads,” he said.
“It is similar to the spreading ideology that the queen mother Kanjogera used to stand leaning on a spear plunged on shoulders of children. They were used to sow divisions and encouraging people to revenge,” added Masozera.
Masozera said he received the sculpture made from wood from a soldier who arrived at Habyarimana first.
“The message portrayed by works of art displayed here has no language barriers. Artistes should know that they can be destructive if wrongly used,” he advised.
The Executive Secretary of Kicukiro district, Adalbert Rukebanuka said it is of great value to exhibit works of art memories to a place where genocide was planned.
“Workers who lived in this house told us that there was pigs abode in the proximity of the house where they threw Tutsi killing during the genocide to feed these pigs,” he revealed.
The Transform Africa Summit is the Smart Africa flagship event. Following four successful editions, the fifth Summit will take place at Kigali Convention Center, Rwanda from 14 to 17 May 2019.
Under the theme “Boosting Africa’s Digital Economy”, the Summit is expected to attract over 4,000 participants, including Heads of State and Government, First Ladies, UN Broadband Commissioners, Ministers, Regulators, Mayors and Governors, Public and Private Sector, International Organizations, Industry Leaders, Investors, Entrepreneurs, Young Innovators, Civil Society and Academia.
In addition to the Smart Africa Leaders Summit, the Smart Africa Women’s Summit and interactive plenaries, the summit will feature subject specific streams tackling current ICT topics. Delegates will be able to attend insightful and engaging streams including Hubs as well as several customized sessions by our partners.
As he unveiled Transform Africa Summit 2019 activities in October 9, 2018, the Executive Director of Smart Africa Alliance that partners with Rwanda to organize the Summit said the fifth edition of the Summit will focus on Africa’s digital-driven economy.
Dr. Hamadun Toure said digital innovations by Africans are a pillar of Africa’s digital-driven economy and will be showcased and sponsored so that they play a role in creating new jobs for the youth.
The presence of Sophia in Kigali will be an opportunity to interact with the humanoid robot for participants of the summit and learn from advanced technologies in artificial intelligence.
Different reports indicate that Sophia is a social humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company ‘Hanson Robotics’. Sophia was activated on February 14, 2016, and made its first public appearance in mid-March 2016 in Austin, Texas, United States. It is able to display more than 50 facial expressions.
Sophia has been covered by media around the globe including CNBC, Forbes, Mashable, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian among others and has participated in many high-profile interviews.
In October 2017, Sophia became the first robot to receive citizenship of any country.
The robot was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality. This attracted controversy as some commentators wondered if this implied that Sophia could vote or marry, or whether a deliberate system shutdown could be considered murder.
Social media users used Sophia’s citizenship to criticize Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. In December 2017, Sophia’s creator David Hanson said in an interview that Sophia would use her citizenship to advocate for women’s rights in her new country of citizenship; Newsweek criticized that “What [Hanson] means, exactly, is unclear”.
On November 27, 2018, Sophia was given a visa by Azerbaijan while attending Global Influencer Day Congress held in Baku. December 15, 2018, Sophia was appointed a Belt and Road Innovative Technology Ambassador by China’
Experts who reviewed the robot’s open-source code stated that Sophia is best categorized as a chatbot with a face. Many experts in the Artificial Intelligence field disapprove of Sophia’s overstated presentation. However; Ben Goertzel, the chief scientist for the company that made Sophia, acknowledged that it is “not ideal” that some think of Sophia as having human-equivalent intelligence, that Sophia’s presentation conveys something unique to audiences.
In November 2017, Sophia was named the United Nations Development Programme’s first-ever Innovation Champion and is the first non-human to be given any United Nations title. As part of its role, Sophia will help to unlock innovation to work toward achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. On stage, it was assigned its first task by UNDP Asia Pacific Chief of Policy and Program, Jaco Cilliers.
In January 2018, Facebook’s director of artificial intelligence, Yann LeCun, tweeted that Sophia was “complete bullshit” and slammed the media for giving coverage to “Potemkin AI”. In response, Goertzel stated that he had never pretended Sophia was close to human-level intelligence.
Sophia is known for human-like appearance and behavior compared to previous robotic variants.
According to the manufacturer, David Hanson, Sophia uses artificial intelligence, visual data processing, and facial recognition. Sophia also imitates human gestures and facial expressions and is able to answer certain questions and to make simple conversations on predefined topics. It uses voice recognition (speech-to-text) technology from Alphabet Inc. (parent company of Google) and is designed to get smarter over time.
Sophia’s intelligence software is designed by Hanson Robotics. The Artificial Intelligence program analyses conversations and extracts data that allows it to improve responses in the future.
Hanson designed Sophia to be a suitable companion for the elderly at nursing homes or to help crowds at large events or parks hoping that the robot can ultimately interact with other humans sufficiently to gain social skills.
Sophia has nine robot humanoid “siblings” who were also created by Hanson Robotics. Fellow Hanson robots are Alice, Albert Einstein Hubo, BINA48, Han, Jules, Professor Einstein, Philip K. Dick Android, Zeno, and Joey Chaos.
He revealed this yesterday as he joined Christians of Saddleback Church led by American evangelist Pastor Rick Warren for the 25th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi held in California.
Pastor Rick Warren is one among close friends of Rwanda for over 15 years.
During the event, President Kagame held a panel discussion with Pastor Rick Warren on the theme ‘Recovering From Traumatic Experiences.’
Pastor Rick expressed solidarity with Rwanda to commemorate the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi saying what happened should be always reflected on. He explained that Rwanda rebuilt from a traumatic experience and asked President Kagame the secret to the journey walked through.
Replying him, President Kagame said: “ We had a tragic situation where over one million people died. Every individual has their own struggles and problems to deal with. The starting point is to create an environment to make sure individuals don’t feel alone.”
“We created conditions to make survivors feel that they lost a lot but not all is lost. There are others who want to be with them, feel their pain with them. It was a starting point,” he added.
To overcome a long term plan for the genocide that left Rwandans divided; President Kagame said that Rwanda promoted common ambitions among people.
“If you look at our history, the country was divided, ideology and politics played out so that a section of our population was made to believe the other is not only different but they should hate each other. We found a way of saying we are a family with different individuals but at the same time we have a lot in common and a lot of common aspirations,” he explained.
When asked on strategies to lead a traumatized country, President Kagame highlighted: “We are aware that you can’t dictate feelings. The best you can do is to create the environment where somebody can start seeing things happening. When the country is investing trying to do certain things for education, health, shelter and bringing in the very people who have been traumatized it is also showing they are not helpless. It is not a hopeless situation.”
“We tried to communicate to the victims that they still can pick themselves up with the family they have tried to build in the country and create a better future than the life they lived in the past. The truth is stubborn and you must be very stubborn to cope with the situation so we keep trying and we keep questioning and finding answers,” he added.
Following the launch of “The Purpose Driven Life” book written by Pastor Warren; Rwanda requested Saddleback Church to send its members to Rwanda as a country driven by a purpose. It led to the establishment of “Peace Plan” in Rwanda with the aim of sowing peace among Rwandans.
With Worldwide presence; Peace plan is the brainchild of Rick Warren. It brings together Christian churches to promote reconciliation, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick and educate the next generation in order to build a positive life, church, and nation.
Saddleback Church has so far sent over 26000 Christians in 197 countries including over 2800 that passed through Rwanda.
They held different activities including training medical practitioners, working closely with farmers, judges, and pastors among others.
The spokesperson of Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), Modeste Mbabazi has confirmed to IGIHE that “The arrested man was caught on the road shouting that Hutus will never live in harmony with Tutsis.”
“He was arrested when he met an old man identified as Kagubari Canisius, 65, whom he once threatened to kill in addition to Tutsis relatives killed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi,” he explained.
Mbabazi said that the arrested man was once arrested in 2016 for similar words full of genocide ideology. He is detained at RIB Station in Rwezamenyo as investigations get underway.
RIB recently announced to have received 47 cases of genocide ideology in the first four days of commemoration week.
