Author: IGIHE

While briefing the media, yesterday, RNP spokesperson Commissioner of Police (CP) John Bosco Kabera, observed that the past year has been generally peaceful with significant reduction in crime and improved road security, which the force will build on especially against high impact crimes.

“The reduction in crimes is largely attributed to increased participation of the general public in sharing information, strengthened community night patrols and enhanced partnership with other groups such as youth volunteers, community policing committees, anti-crime and anti-drugs clubs, among others,” CP Kabera said.

According to CP Kabera, five fatal accidents were recorded in the festive period claiming four people.

Nineteen people were also arrested for drunk-driving in the festive period although majority accidents were due to over-speeding, bad maneuvers and other reckless driving behaviors, he said.

Road traffic accidents decreased by more than 20 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year.

The reduction in accidents was also attributed to installation of speed governor in cargo and public service vehicles. The two categories of automobiles were in previous years the majority involved in fatal accidents.

CP Kabera said that crime prevention, improving road security and combating high impact crimes like drugs, corruption and engaging more in human security activities are among the major focus in this year.

“Police increased its operations and community awareness against psychotropic substances, and this year will be no different; the law against drugs was revised especially against big dealers and all these measures are aimed at breaking chains of supply and saving the young, the majority victims,” he said.

RNP established the Anti-Narcotics Unit (ANU) to spearhead the fight against drugs.

On road safety, the force, he said, will continue to revitalize its services by employing technology especially in driver’s license and mechanical inspection related services; work with other entities like RURA, insurance companies, transporters, drivers and motorcyclists groups as well as driving schools.

“As usual, partnership at all levels is key and we continue to call for increased vigilance and real time information sharing. The Police are there for the safety and security of the people, that’s why we call upon the general public to always report anything that can impede on their well-being,” CP Kabera said.

{{Source: Police}}

The authorities said accreditation for the Radio France Internationale (RFI) correspondent in Kinshasa, Florence Morice, had been withdrawn.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende accused Morice of violating electoral law and “the code of good conduct for foreign journalists covering the elections”.

Accusing the station of stirring controversy, he said, “RFI’s broadcasts have been cut off in all of Congo’s cities.”

“We are not going to let a radio station throw petrol on the flames at a time when we are waiting for the compilation of the provisional results,” Mende said.

RFI, a French public-service broadcaster, has a very large audience in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a French-speaking country of around 80 million people.

It has been closely covering Sunday’s presidential elections and the marathon vote tally.

RFI issued a statement saying its coverage had been impartial and expressing full support for Morice.

She had been “merely working as a professional journalist,” it said, and urged the authorities to reverse their decision to withdraw her accreditation.
On Tuesday, RFI said that its broadcasts had been blocked since Monday evening.

{{- Suspicions –
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The elections will determine who succeeds President Joseph Kabila, at the helm of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest country for nearly 18 years.

Kabila refused to step down after his two-term constitutional limit ended in 2016, sparking protests that were quelled at the cost of scores of lives.

Among the DRC’s opposition, suspicions run deep that the vote will be rigged to let his preferred successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, be declared winner.

Mende said RFI had been “declaring results (and) trends” as the vote count unfolded.

“Only the head of CENI can proclaim” these, he said, referring to the Independent National Electoral Commission, in charge of overseeing the elections and the count.

On Monday, the authorities cut off access to the internet, a move that opposition activists said sought to gag communications and stifle transparency.

An adviser to Kabila, Barnabe Kikaya Bin Karubi, said the move targeted the dissemination of “fake figures” to avert a “popular uprising.”

The European Union, United States, Canada and Switzerland urged the government to restore access.

The DRC has a long history of turmoil, and many fear a bloodbath if the elections go badly wrong.

The mineral-rich country has never had a peaceful handover of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960.

Millions of people died from fighting, starvation and disease in two full-fledged wars between 1996 and 2003, and bloodshed marred elections in 2006 and 2011.

Preliminary results are due by Sunday, and definitive results by January 15, with the next head of state due to be sworn in January 18. Legislative and municipal elections took place alongside the presidential ballot.

According to a survey by Afriscope/TNS Sofres quoted by RFI, the French radio station has 40 percent of listeners in the DRC.

{{Source: RFI/The Monitor}}

Bart Hofker, the MTN Rwanda CEO said, “in 2018, MTN Rwanda invested over Rwf 22 billion in network expansion and modernization, which was key in the acceleration of internet penetration by availing quality and affordable services to MTN subscribers”.

The unprecedented growth comes after a successful completion of network modernization that resulted into tripling the average internet access speed. MTN Rwanda has also been pushing a pro-customer campaign that, among other initiatives, left the internet (out of bundle) prices per megabytes slashed down from Rwf 51 to Rwf 10.

The trend is projected to continue as MTN has been positioning itself as the Number 1 Internet Network in Rwanda.

In the end year 2018 message to Rwandans, Kagame said Rwanda achieved a lot last year and lot more is coming in 2019.

Among commendable achievements is the good performance in sports particularly in cycling as Team Rwanda won tournaments on African continent while it also participated in other worldwide biggest cycling races.

“In sports, Rwandans showcased ability and performed well on the international level mostly in cycling,” Kagame said.

{{Rwanda’s Cycling Team in 2018
}}

The year 2018 started with Rwandans celebrating as Joseph Areruya became the first Rwandan to win the UCI (International Cycling Union) 2.1 race when he emerged winner of La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, the biggest cycling race on the UCI-Africa Tour which was held in Gabon from 15th to 21st January 2018.

Areruya won the race in Team Rwanda jersey where he competed with Didier Munyaneza, Valens Ndayisenga, Jean Ruberwa, Jean Paul René Ukiniwabo and Bonaventure Uwizeyimana.

Joy for Rwandan lovers of the cycling game continued on February 4th,2018 when Rwanda’s U-23 team which was composed by Samuel Mugisha, Didier Munyaneza, Jean Paul René Ukiniwabo, Jean Ruberwa, Samuel Hakiruwizeye and Joseph Areruya won ‘Tour de l’Espoir’, a racing competition which was staged in Cameroon.

This made Rwanda qualify to U23 Tour de France which was held in France from 17th until 26th August 2018.

Rwandans won Tour du Rwanda for the fifth time in row when Samuel Mugisha was worn the yellow jersey at Kigali Stadium after covering the 953.2km distance of the 8-stage race in 24 hours, 26 minutes and 53 seconds.

To win the tour, Mugisha, ‘the King of the Mountains’ who also became the youngest rider to win the race in history, beat his closest contender and compatriot, Jean Claude Uwizeye by 21 seconds after the latter clocked 24h27’14” while Ethiopian Mulu Hailemicheal finished in the third place clocking 25h27’57”, one minute and four seconds behind.

The judge in charge of this investigation ordered on December 24, in accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor’s office that Bucyibaruta who was the Prefect of Gikongoro Prefect, now Nyaruguru and Nyamagabe Districts of the Southern Province, be sent the ‘Court d’Assises’ of Paris.

He is suspected of being an accomplice to acts of genocide and crimes against humanity between April and July 1994, committed in the genocide that saw more than a million Tutsi killed.

Bucyibaruta is in among other accusations, accused of the role in the murder of a Rwandan gendarme and three priests, as well as rapes.

“We will appeal in the few days coming because there are a number of exculpatory evidence in this file, “Ghislain Mabonga Monga, a lawyer for Bucyibaruta, told AFP.

“It was a decision we had been waiting for a very long time, “reacted Alain Gauthier, the President of the ‘Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda’ (SCRC), an association that tracks alleged génocidaires.

“We can only rejoice, especially since it adds to other advances” in the Rwandan genocide file, he said.

In his order, the Judge Alexandre Baillon believes that the former prefect, who has been a refugee in France since 1997 where he is under judicial control, has “made himself complicit in a massive and systematic practice of summary executions” against people grouped on certain sites as well as “people arrested at roundabouts and barriers, inspired by political, philosophical, racial or religious motives and organized in execution of a concerted plan against a group of civilian population, in this case the population Tutsi.”

Bucyibaruta was also wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), accused of ordering the Interahamwe (Hutu extremists) who were under his command to commit several massacres against Tutsi.

The ICTR, which had divested itself in favor of French courts, was said in 2013 concerned about the slowness of the French justice in handling this case.

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At least eight of the stolen sewing machines were recovered from the suspects at the time of their arrest on December 23.

On December 18, thieves broke into the offices of the youth development center, known as Maison des Jeunes Kimisagara, located in Gitega Sector, Akabahizi Cell, Gihanga Village and stole the eleven machines meant for vocational training.

Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Emmanuel Kayigi, the Central region Police spokesperson, said the two suspects were intercepted by Irondo (local night patrol) and handed over to Police.

“The two suspects admitted to being part of the group that stole the eleven sewing machines. They said the machines were shared among all members of the ring, so we are still searching for their accomplices,” CIP Kayigi said.

Rwanda National Police (RNP) and Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), CIP Kayigi said, are working together to recover the remaining machines.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson also asked members of the public, who might have lost their laptops, television sets and other electronics to go to the metropolitan in Remera to see if they are among those recovered in various operations.

The suspects; a man and a woman said to have been trafficking cannabis from the Democratic Republic of Congo, were intercepted in Kagere Village, Kora Cell in Bigogwe sector at around 8 am en-route from Rubavu District, Police said.

They had worn the pellets inside their clothes in an attempt to beat security.

“In the wee hours of Sunday, Police in Nyabihu received a phone call from a resident privy to one of the suspect’s (man) criminal dealings. The caller was specific that the suspect was to ‘bring new stock’ that very morning from Rubavu,” Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Innocent Gasasira, the Police spokesperson for the Western region, said.

He added: “An operation was conducted and the suspects were intercepted in Kagere Village where they were at the time found distributing cannabis to their retailers. When Police searched them, they recovered other 1122 pellets wrapped around the man’s body; the woman had worn other 1016 rolls inside her trouser. They were immediately taken into custody and handed over to Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) in Jenda alongside their exhibits.”

The man is a “renowned wanted drug dealer” and the woman was one of his employees he uses to traffic and distributes cannabis amongst his retailers, with the majority being the youth in Bigogwe Sector, according to CIP Gasasira.

He commended the resident, who called the Police and facilitated “successful operation” that led to the arrest of the duo and called for strengthened information sharing on drug dealers to supplement the ongoing operations aimed at breaking chains of supply.

Any person convicted as a “severe narcotic drugs” dealer faces a term of between 20 years and life in prison, under article 263 of the new penal code, and a fine of up to Rwf30 million.
The same article also provides imprisonment of not less than seven years and not more than ten to anyone classified as “simple narcotics” dealer, and a financial penalty of between Rwf5 million and Rwf10 million.

However, if acts mentioned in this article are performed to a child or if they are performed at the international level, the penalty is life imprisonment and a fine ranging between Rwf30 million and Rwf50 million.

Source:[ www.police.gov.rw->www.police.gov.rw]