IGIHE

Author: IGIHE

  • Religious undemocratic suppression raises human rights concerns in democratic South Korea

    Ms. Gu Ji In, the victim from this conversion program, was taken by their parents twice to two different places – Catholic monastery and resort pension for months. Though the religious background of the family is a Presbyterian church, major denomination in Korean Christianity, the Catholic space with the approval from the Catholic members was used for anti-human rights crime. This type of forceful conversion exceeds 1,000 victims with deaths and war-like mental traumas.

    To restore justice, a public rally with 120,000 participants in Seoul back in January requested a legal punishment on this criminal activity by Christian pastors who make the “Coercive Conversion Program” to encourage parents to kidnap their children and forcefully threaten them to convert.

    Without being exposed to direct involvement into the physical violence, the pastors avoid the criminal law and financially benefit from the parents. Since today, the Korean government has not released an official statement.

    {{Korea’s Mainstream Christianity Becomes hotbed of crime
    }}

    The social and political influence of Christianity in South Korea has made the civil rights ignored. The Christian Council of Korea (CCK) was established in 1989 as a unified organization of Christian churches with the majority of the Presbyterian denomination. With millions of church members, the CCK exerted its influence in presidential elections and leveling heresy for firm control over social and economic power. For the last 10 years, Korean media frequently have reported the corruption of the CCK.

    The CCK’s controversies have raised concerns over not only social division in the country but global conflict. During the Japanese colonial period, the Presbyterian church encouraged Korean youth to participate in the war waged by Japan in Asia and the Pacific. In 1938, the church collected money to purchase weapons and claimed it was “the order of God for Christians in Korea.”

    Under the sponsorship from the military dictatorship in the 1970s, this tradition transformed into an anti-peace slogan. Recently, the president of the CCK officially said that the citizens who held candle lights in Seoul Square for the resignation of the former President Park Geun Hye are “flea” (insect) and held prayer service “for the fall of communist (President) Moon Jae In in the name of Jesus.”

    Another prayer service by the CCK left remarks against the international norm, which encourages war behavior that threatens global order. A former official from the Park government said, “For the stability of South Korea, we need nuclear armament.”

    {{Responsibility and role of religion questioned
    }}

    Pastor Noel Malik, Director of Pakistan Minorities Alliance in Italy, emphasized, “Denominations who exercise those actions are not Christian. They are extremist and anti-Christian. I want to ask them. In which chapter and which verse are you following to do such bad action? If the Bible does not say, why are you doing that?”

    H.E. Samuel Sam-Sumana, Former Vice President of Government of Sierra Leone, said, “Governments should be encouraged and supported to develop clearly defined policies and laws against forceful conversion and those policies and laws should be fully enforced.”

    “Importantly too, there should be collaborative efforts established and undertaken by countries in the same region to track and deal with such violations of rights,” he added.

    “There have been 137 cases of coercive conversion after the death of Ms. Gu since January this year. This shows how Christian pastors are cheapening the lives of people,” said Ms. Jihye Choi, co-president of Human Rights Association for Victims of Coercive Conversion Programs (HAC) in South Korea.

    “In order to root out this kind of anti-human right conversion, international interest is of tremendous importance,” she highlighted.

  • Diane Rwigara, Adeline Mukangemanyi cleared of all charges

    The High Court announced the acquittal of Diane Rwigara and her mother prosecuted for attempting to cause insurrection, forgery and the use of forged documents with charges of incitement to violence for her mother. On November 7, the day of the opening of the trial, five hours were enough for the Rwandan justice to close the hearings. The judges decided not to follow the requisitions of the prosecution, which had asked for the maximum penalty for these charges, i.e 22 years in prison. The verdict marks the end of a legal soap opera that lasted more than a year.

    The Rwigara case began in 2017. On May 3rd, Diane Rwigara announced her candidacy as an independent in the presidential election. On 7 July, his candidacy is reported by the Rwandan Electoral Commission (NEC), which alleges the presence of several false signatures on the list she presented.

    On August 29, 2017, Rwandan police raided Rwigara’s home, which resulted in the seizure of cash ($130 000), computers and mobile phones. The police then had two motives: the first concerning the alleged falsified signatures in Diane Rwigara’s application, the second relating to suspicions of tax fraud against the family business Premier Tobacco Company, managed at the time by Diane’s sister, Anne Rwigara.

    Diane Rwigara, her mother Adeline, and her sister Anne are remanded in custody on September 24th in the 1930 prison. On October 23, charges against Anne Rwigara are dropped.

    {{Insufficient evidence
    }}

    After more than one year of court proceedings, the judges of the Kigali High Court did not retain the charge of ‘attempt to causing insurrection’ against Diane Rwigara. It was based on comments made at a press conference on July 14, 2017, during which the candidate announced the launch of her political party, the People Salvation Movement.

    She then spoke about the death of her father, late businessman Assinapol Rwigara who died in February 2015 in a car accident; a version challenged by the family, which evokes a disguised assassination.

    On the other hand, on the charge of ‘forgery and use of forged documents’, the judges considered that, if the forgeries were indeed attested, there was still doubt about Diane Rwigara’s responsibility. The evidence presented to the court by the prosecution, including the results of the Kigali Forensic Laboratory, which analyzed the authenticity of the signatures, does not constitute sufficient evidence to prove Diane Rwigara guilty, the judges ruled.

    In particular, the prosecution accused the candidate of having collected the signatures of people who died or who were out of the country among the 600 she submitted to the NEC. Other signatories on this list deny support. For the Court, these testimonies are not enough to prove the responsibility of Diane Rwigara in the falsification of signatures.

    During her trial, Diane Rwigara’s defense regretted that ‘none of the people whose signatures were imitated were summoned to the trial. According to Diane Rwigara’s lawyers, the candidate had asked her relays in the area to collect signatures and was therefore not aware of the use of the forgery.

    “Why were these people not prosecuted? Asked Pierre-Célestin Buhuru before the verdict. “It’s a trial that could have lasted a year if we had heard all the witnesses,”

    {{Private conversations
    }}

    Diane’s mother, Adeline Rwigara, was also prosecuted for “inciting violence” and “promoting sectarianism,” charges based on WhatsApp audio messages sent to her sister, Tabitha Mugenzi, among other things. Adeline Rwigara acknowledged that the phones found by the police on which these records appeared, belonged to her. “We believe that incitement to insurrection can’t be retained in this case, as the exchanges in question were not shared with the public, they are private conversations,” explained Gatera Gashabana after the requisitions. An opinion shared by the High Court judges in their verdict.

    Overwhelmed by the court's verdict, Adeline Mukangemanyi was praising the lord
    Friends and Family of the Rwigara had attended in great numbers and were displaying at the court's decision

    {{Photos: Moise Niyonzima
    Video: Kazungu Armand}}

  • Poverty prevalence still high at 38.2%, extreme poverty 16%

    The National Institute of Statistics (NISR) launched the findings of the survey conducted every three years on Thursday. It has revealed that the Rwandan population grew by 1.4%

    Rwandans who are in poverty are those who are able to find food but cannot afford other necessities, such as schooling, family health care, clothing, entertainment, leisure, paying for rent, traveling, and other basic necessities in life and cannot earn Rwf159, 375 per year.

    Those in extreme poverty cannot afford a healthy diet rich in nutrients, as well as other important necessities in life and do not earn more than Rwf105,064 a year.

    Survey findings show that the number of poor people is 38.2% from 39.1% in the fourth survey released in 2013/14 and down from 44.9% in 2010/2011.

    Rwandans in poverty reduced by 0.9%, while those in extreme poverty increased by 0.3% from 16% to 16.3%.

    The Western Province has the biggest number of people in poverty at 47.1%, while those in extreme poverty are 21.6 percent.

    The Northern Province has 42.3% as poor people, the Southern Province has 41.4%, the Eastern Province has 37.4% while the City of Kigali has 13.9%.

    In the districts of the City of Kigali, poverty is below 15% while in districts like Nyamasheke, it is close to 70%.

    Nyamasheke, Gisagara, Rulindo, Karongi, and Nyaruguru districts have biggest numbers of poor people. NISR’s director, Yusuf Murangwa said food-poverty is much pronounced.

    “Seventy percent of the poverty is based on not being able to find something to eat and affording it. If we start with improving agriculture and solve food insecurity, that will be great. The remaining 30% of poverty is due to lack of other necessities such as houses, and clothing, among others. ”

    Murangwa said that in general, the lives of Rwandans are improving whether in a settlement, economic activities, access to electricity and technology, among others.

    However, he recommended that there should be strategies to help cope with unusual times, particularly in the face of disasters and climate change.

    It is also needed to strengthen the programs that help people to cope with the extraordinary times in a sustainable way, especially, those that threaten the economy and climate change.

    Prime Minister Dr. Edouard Ngirente said that the survey is important because a comprehensive planning always needs reliable and current information to evaluate what has been done in terms of reducing poverty issues of poverty and in other development areas.

    “What was revealed by EICV 5, shows us that we should double our efforts by working together with all our stakeholders to eradicate poverty. We should not keep doing the same things. This is up to the Government of Rwanda, all Rwandans, the private sector, partners in development and religious organizations,” he said.

    Economic inequalities also reduced as shown by ‘Gini’ indicator, from 0.447 in 2013/14 to 0.429 in 2016/2017.

    NISR states that although there were no big changes in living conditions, some people left one category to a better one.

    {{Why did the speed of poverty reduction decrease?
    }}

    The statistics indicate that in 2000/2001 Rwandans in poverty were 58.9%, and in 2005/6, were 56.7%, in 2010/11 they were 44.9%, in 2013/14 they were 39.1% and 38.2% in 2016/2017.

    It is for the first time that the poverty rate has decreased at a low rate of -0.9%. Murangwa explains that poverty has diminished so slightly that almost no change occurred.

    “In 2016, we had a prolonged dry season in the second agricultural season, which had a bearing on agricultural production. This led to a decrease in foodstuffs and food commodity price rise in 2017,” he said.

    It contributed to the decline in the citizen’s ability to buy and generally satisfy themselves in food.

    He also noted that the low agricultural production affected the increase of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which led to poor economic growth during the 2016/2017 budget year.

    The study also revealed that about 82% of Rwandans are under 40 years of age, while 3.5% are aged 65 and above. Women are 52%, and the City of Kigali has the smallest number of women while the Northern Province has the biggest number of women.

    Rwanda’s economy continued to rise in the last 10 years at 7.5%, while commerce rose by 23.9%, between 2014 and 2017 compared to between 2011 and 2014 when it had risen by 24.4%.

    Jobs increased by 31% between 2014 and 2017, while between 2011 and 2014 they had increased by 34.5%.

    Home internet users rose from 9% in 2014 to 17% in 2017.

    The rate of people using electricity for lighting whether from main supplying sources or solar energy increased to 34.4% in 2016/2017.

    Clean drinking water is estimated to be at 86%.

    Mobile phone owners are 67% up from 64% in 2014 while Rwandans who own televisions are 10,4% up from 9.9% in 2014.

    87.6% of Rwandan children attend primary school and 23.2% attend secondary schools.

  • Forensic Laboratory carries out 112 DNA paternal tests in 8 months

    Rwanda Forensic Laboratory (RFL) replaced Kigali Forensic Lab (KFL), created in 2005, which was since 2015 run by the Rwanda National Police (RNP) and Prosecution providing three services- forensic toxicology, drug and chemistry, and documents examination and fingerprint analysis.

    From the end of March this year, Rwanda Forensic Laboratory which was launched on 7th June by the Minister of Justice, Johnston Busingye, started providing other additional services such as DNA forensics, ballistics, forensic pathology, and digital forensics.

    Speaking to IGIHE, the Director General of Rwanda Forensic Laboratory, ACP François Sinayobye said the Laboratory can now offer ballistic tests and results when applied for by individuals.

    “Since we started operations as RFL, we have done 172 DNA tests of which 110 are paternal. The other tests carried out are related to murder and sexual abuse,” said ACP Sinamenye.

    The increase in the number of paternal tests applications is among other reasons due to Rwandan Government’s drive to pursue suspected criminals who defile children and deny them and the drastic reduction in the cost of DNA paternal tests compared to when DNA samples were sent to Germany.

    While it cost about more than one thousand US dollars abroad mostly in Germany, it now costs only Rwf267,035.

    “People have started understanding the importance of services we deliver. It is a laboratory that came at the right time as it came with solutions to problems that were raised due to lack of evidence after crimes. This will boost the good justice delivery which is necessary for good governance,” ACP Sinamenye added.

    Since March this year, RFL has carried out 61 documents tests, 37 fingerprint tests, 25 forensic toxicology tests, 1028 autopsies, two ICT and cyber-related tests and 3030 tests related to violence.

    ACP Sinayobye further revealed plans by Rwanda Forensic Laboratory to introduce the Biometric Data Bank which will serve to get DNA samples of suspected criminals without having to first test them.

  • Mayors accused of meddling in quarries management

    He made the remarks as the world celebrated the International Mining Day.

    When he was asked on quarrying in Rwanda, this official said: “It is clear that quarries can generate production on a national level because of the taxes and levies they pay, but because investing in the sector is easy, local government institution meddles with quarrying including registration under more than one operators.”

    He added that when you want to speculate about the potential of minerals present in an area, you face challenges including resistance from would-be relocated residents with the support of mayors. ”Local authorities make it difficult when you want to relocate the residents. They tell them to make it difficult. In such circumstances, you stop what you were doing, and the investor leaves. This also affects the people who would get jobs and the country loses. They (authorities) instead give the quarries to people known to them,” he says.

    Asked by IGIHE whether mayors are also involved in the issue, Uwimana briefly responded: “Yes, they are.”

    He said that, in some cases, an investor may call the mayor to tell him the problem he has encountered, but the mayor declines to take their calls for two months.

    The Chief Executive Officer in Mines, Petroleum, and Gas board, Francis Gatare said that some delays are at times experienced as the newly revised law on quarrying put the powers of issuing permits at different levels; national, district and sector levels, but he also admits that there are really still issues in quarrying.

    Governor of the Northern Province, Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi said that when someone meets the requirements, their permits should be expedited.

    “When you apply for the permits and meet the requirements, you should not be delayed, we are going to have a meeting and identify the reason why they refuse to give them permits. I will tell local government leaders, that mining benefits us especially that when it is done properly, it creates jobs and income for the country,” he said.

    However, he noted that there are some leaders who give permits to people who do not meet the requirements to the detriment of the environment.

  • Nine ambassadors present credentials to Kagame

    Two of the nine ambassadors have offices in Kigali with one having an office in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania while six others have offices in Nairobi, Kenya.

    Among ambassadors who presented credentials to President Kagame is Ambassador of India, Oscar Kerketta becoming India’s first Ambassador to operate in Kigali after India opened its embassy in Kigali.

    After presenting his credentials to President Kagame, Ambassador Kerketta said he will mostly focus on improving bilateral relations after India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s visit in Rwanda that saw two countries signing eight finance agreements worth $200 million.
    The agreements include investments and projects to boost agriculture through irrigation projects.

    Ambassador Eduardo Filomeno Leiro Octávio of Angola said, after presenting his credentials to President Kagame, that the activity marked both nations mutual will to boost bilateral political and economic relations.

    He said Rwanda and Angola’s relations are improving as Angola offers tourist visa for Rwandans on arrival. Oshen Health Care, an Angolan international medical firm has invested $24 million in King Faysal Hospital with plans to set up an internationally standardized heart surgery Centre in Rwanda by 2020.

    The Ambassador of Austria to Rwanda, Dr. Christian Fellner, revealed that the Chancellor of Austria who also doubles as current Chairperson of the European Union, Sebastian Kurz will on Friday, be in Rwanda for an official visit.

    “Austria and Rwanda have good relations which we plan to strengthen. Many delegates will come to Kigali including a group of traders who will visit Rwanda Development Board (BRD), different organs and in the near future, Members of Austrian Parliament will also visit Rwanda,” said Ambassador Christian Fellner.

    “On Friday, Our Head of State will be in Kigali. He with President Kagame will hold talks on a conference to be held in Vienna on December 18, this year,” he added.

    Prof. Dr. Ratlan Pardede representing Indonesia said his utmost target is to develop trade and investments between the two countries through the private sector.

    “My goal is to accelerate economic growth through trade between Indonesia and Rwanda. Trade volumes between Rwanda increased from $4 million to $7 million in 2017,” Ambassador Pardede said.

    Other ambassadors who presented their letters of credence to President Kagame include Australia’s Ambassador to Rwanda, Alison Helena Chartres, Ambassador Fernando Estellita Lins de Salvo Coimbra of Brazil to Rwanda, František Dlhopolček, Ambassador of Slovakia to Rwanda, Ambassador Marti Gómez of Argentina and Ambassador Uriel Garibay of the Republic of Philippines to Rwanda.

    Australia’s Ambassador to Rwanda, Alison Helena Chartres
    President Kagame in discussions with the Ambassador of India, Oscar Kerketta who is India’s first Ambassador to operate in Kigali after India opened its embassy in Kigali
    President Kagame receiving letters of credence from the Ambassador of Slovakia to Rwanda, František Dlhopolček
    Prof. Dr. Ratlan Pardede representing Indonesia said his utmost target is to develop trade and investments between the two countries through the private sector
    Ambassador Uriel Garibay of the Republic of Philippines to Rwanda

  • Rwanda and Russia sign an agreement on peaceful use of atomic energy

    Ambassador Claver Gatete, the Minister of infrastructure of the Republic of Rwanda signed the agreement for the Government of the Republic of Rwanda. For the Government of the Russian Federation, the Agreement was signed by the Director General of the State Atomic Energy Corporation “Rosatom” Mr. Alexey Likhachev.

    The Agreement creates a solid basis for the establishment of Center for Nuclear Science and Technology in Rwanda for peaceful purposes as a basis for social economic transformation of the country through modernization of several vital sectors of the economy such as; agriculture, health, pharmaceuticals and industry, geology and mining, environment, and electricity generation among other applications.

    The agreement also prescribes cooperation in such areas as fundamental and applied research in the field of peaceful atom.

  • How eight resolutions made during the 2017 national dialogue been implemented

    It is an annual meeting that is going to take place for the sixteenth time, discussing the general health of the country. Here, participants get to give their opinions and make decisions that should be implemented to improve the state of affairs.

    As Rwandans prepare for the 16th national dialogue, IGIHE went back to look at how eight decisions made during the previous one have been implemented.

    {{Education
    }}

    The 15th edition of Umushyikirano made the decisions including to “continue setting strategies and reforms aimed at promoting the quality of education at all levels of education, evaluating academic curriculum, enhancing languages teaching, increasing the number of schools offering science and vocational courses, and fighting causes that make children to abandon school.”

    Among what has been done about this decision, the Ministry of Education announced that primary and secondary schools’ curricula are being assessed, such that in 2020, the academic year will start in September.

    In enhancing languages teaching, in March this year, it was announced that there was an ongoing strategy consisting of a prerequisite English test for teachers so as to identify their skills levels and assist them accordingly to deepen their knowledge. Those who fail to improve will be dismissed.

    This approach will be used for students who have graduated in each level of the secondary schools, colleges, and universities, where someone who fails the English test will not be able to graduate from one level to another.

    Regarding increasing the number of vocational and technical schools, Minister of Education Dr. Eugène Mutimura, when he recently launched the exams ending secondary studies, said that some things have been achieved and that the process will be continuous.

    “We target to have achieved 60% of children attending vocational and technical schools by 2024. We have achieved nearly 45%. There are some 10 schools that we are going to build in partnership with the Government of India,” he said.

    {{Health
    }}

    In health, a decision was made to increase infrastructures and continuously build the capacity of health workers, making efforts in dealing with various diseases and providing better services.

    In terms of increasing infrastructures, the Government of Rwanda in the 2018/2019 national budget, announced that it would build and rehabilitate six hospitals on a district level, which would cost up to Rwf30 billion.

    The hospitals include Byumba Hospital in Gicumbi and Munini Hospital in Nyaruguru District.

    There are also new hospitals that will be built including Nyarugenge District Hospital, Nyabitekeri Hospital in Muhanga District, Gatunda Hospital in Nyagatare District and Gatonde Hospital in Gakenke District.

    In terms of building the capacity for health care workers with an emphasis on epidemic diseases, in November 2018, the Ministry of Health launched training programs for doctors to empower them to cope with and prevent Ebola.

    It came after the epidemic claimed more than 200 lives in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

    The meeting also made the decision to encourage parents and imparting the skills about children’s development, taking care of healthy eating, hygiene and developing early childhood development centers (ECDs).

    A campaign was conducted in all districts about early joint childhood development services including healthy diet as well as child and mother health.

    The campaign focused on 13 districts with a large number of stunted children including Rusizi, Karongi, Rutsiro, Nyabihu, Ngororero, Rubavu, Kayonza, Bugesera, Gakenke, Ruhango, Huye, Nyamagabe and Nyaruguru.

    {{Economy
    }}

    In economy, the decision to work with the private sector has been made to ensure that industries and citizens have access to electricity at an affordable cost in a bid to facilitate investments.

    In facilitating, people to access electricity, Rwanda Energy Group (REG) in April announced new reforms to enable its customers to access better services and to deal with the challenges they used to face including frequent power failures.

    Among the reforms that REG started, include enhancing the capacity of the power supply system, a technological system of tracking the frequency of blackouts, buying electricity online and reducing the time it takes for someone to get power.

    In August, Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), announced new electricity prices that significantly facilitate industry owners.

    RURA said that industries will be charged for electricity depending on the period of time it is in use, with high cost during peak and low cost during off-peak hours.

    It was also decided to increase saving awareness and support domestic products (Made in Rwanda, Start in Rwanda, Grow in Rwanda and Beyond), with the aim of creating and improving jobs and reducing the gap between imports and exports.

    In reducing the gap between exports and imports, the Central Bank (BNR) in August announced that Rwanda’s export exports increased by 23.2% in the first six months of 2018, to $463.16 million from $375.91 million in the same months last year.

    Rwanda’s import-export deficit reduced by 2% in the first six months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017.

    In promoting the products made in Rwanda, industries such as Volkswagen in June 2018 started assembling cars in Rwanda.

    The promotion of products made in Rwanda involves encouraging Rwandans to buy them, especially public servants who have recently been required to wear, at least one, one clothing made in Rwanda per month.

    {{Culture}}

    Culture, as a major pillar of national health, was not forgotten in the 15th edition of Umushyikirano. It was decided to maintain the values of our culture and to further educate young people and Rwandans living abroad in order to help us accelerate our development.
    Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture (RALC) in October published a book that incorporates the nation’s values and customs. It is aimed at helping parents, educators and students to understand the values of traditional culture and how to use them while abroad.
    RALC says that the book is being sent to schools and working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to give it to Rwandans abroad.

    There is also a decision to reinforce the collaboration between government institutions, parents, civil society and religious organizations and churches in a bid to enhance teaching English in the family, schools, and media programs.

    RALC says that it has carried out different campaigns aimed at increasing knowledge in Kinyarwanda. In September this year, in all secondary schools that have an advanced level, there was started a Kinyarwanda essay competition for students. It is done by students competing to write poems and short stories in Kinyarwanda.

    The final decision was to set up a retreat program to enable the youth to work together.
    The retreat started from May to June this year. It replaced ‘Itorero’ which was meant for secondary school graduates.

  • Senate gives Government six months to address critical issues in schools

    When the plenary session received a report of the Social Affairs and Human Rights Commission on the process of identifying and monitoring the activities and functions of the Government in terms of implementing capacity-based curricula in primary and secondary schools, on December 4, 2018, the president of the commission, Senator Gallican Niyongana explained that the commission found out that the capacity-based curriculum has been implemented and that students, educators, and officials appreciated it.

    However, he said that there are still some challenges to be addressed in order to achieve capacity-based learning and teaching.

    “The commission examined the general structure of school infrastructures and found out that many schools have old buildings, have no doors and windows, with damaged desks that have not been repaired,” he said.

    He added that the commission found out that many schools do not have enough toilets in comparison with the number of students. He said, in some cases, one school has more than 1000 students and less than 10 toilets which are also unhygienic.

    Having heard other issues that were highlighted, the Senate plenary session made decisions that should be submitted to the Government to achieve basic requirements of education based on capacity and willingness.

    The Senate requested the government to “prepare within six months, a curriculum based on a survey of issues in all schools, which will be done by respecting standards, establish needed budgeting and how the curriculum implementation can be funded.

    The Senate also requested the government to establish school governing bodies in accordance with the law and to establish a monitoring process to know whether they carry out their mandates, which should be undertaken within a period of not more than three months.

    The third decision is to solve, in less than one month, the problem of delays in capitation and school feeding grants. Also, the Senate demanded that the government provides the grants at the beginning of the academic year.

    The fourth is “to allocate basic materials for education secondary and university schools to help prepare students properly and empowering the schools where the students hone their teaching career.”

  • Defiled, impregnated, infected with HIV/AIDS and bought into secrecy

    Most of the girls, who lived on streets in Kigali and now under rehabilitation at Marembo Center reveal that some ‘respectable’ men would take advantage of their homelessness and forced them to have sex, giving them some money, buying them into secrecy. Many under-world-like stories. “One man would come on the streets under the cover of the night, pick about ten girls, defile them in one night and dump them back on the streets in the morning. Others could take some girls and have sex with them for a week, and then dump them back on the streets,” goes one of the narrations.

    IGIHE writer met some of the victims as she visited Marembo Centre that caters for sexually abused girls under the age of eighteen. The Centre is located in Ndera Sector of Gasabo District in Kigali.

    {{Ten girls sexually abused by one man
    }}

    Yvette Uwase (not real names) is 16 years old. She was born in Rwamagana District and started living street life when she was 14 when someone brought her to Kigali and abandoned her at Nyabugogo Bus Park.

    With no relative or acquaintance in Kigali City, Uwase remained with no other choice, she started living in Nyabugogo River Swamp with other street boys and girls.

    With tears flowing down her cheeks, Uwase says she started being sexually abused at the age of fourteen to get a livelihood. She is now approximately six months pregnant and medical tests proved she is HIV positive.

    “I lived in Nyabugogo Swamp with other ten young girls. There is a man who frequently came to us during night hours. He, at first, bought us food and paid taxi moto fees for us to his house. He had sex with us all night and let us go back in the morning. Sometimes, we would spend a week at his home,” recounts Uwase with an overpowering tinge of sadness.

    Uwase says this man lives in a nice house in a fence and he was apparently a civilized and rich man. He took them to his house in the night that no neighbor would see them.

    “When we reached his home, he gave us water and soap to take shower and he had sex with one after the other. Those whom I know we went together are ten. I personally went to his house five times. We are not the only ones who went there; there are others. Every time we went to his home, he gave each of us Rwf5,000 and hence we chose not to reveal that to anybody else,” Uwase adds.

    Of the ten girls said to have been defiled by the “shadow-man”, three are now at Marembo Centre. They are pregnant and all are infected with HIV/AIDS.

    Shockingly, among the girls our reporter met at the Centre, is an eight-year-old, infected with HIV/AIDS.

    “We told him [the suspected defiler] to use condoms but he refused and tore it in parts. He said he would not pay money to the one who would refuse to have sex with him. He promised more money to the one who accepted to do unprotected sex. If we complained that we might get impregnated, he told us that he knew he can’t impregnate a woman.”

    The victims accepted to sell their bodies for money to get food and clothes but also the suspect told them there was a planned operation to arrest street children and that he wanted to give them accommodation.

    The victims at Marembo Centre who talked to our reporter can vividly remember the residence of the man they accuse of having sexually abused them. The man who ruined the lives of the young girls was never brought to justice.

    {{Dead trying out abortions
    }}

    When some street girls discover that they are pregnant, they try to carry out abortions which result into deaths for some.

    “Some try to abort using traditional ointments and herbs while others use Glycerin jerry. Some also die as they try to abort,” reveals one girl.

    {{Marembo Centre is home to sexually abused girls who were raped.
    }}

    The abuse results in young girls’ trauma, depression and loss of confidence but the Director of Marembo Centre, Nicolette Nsabimana, says that at the Centre, hope for a good life is restored.

    “Street girls are not raped or impregnated by their fellow street boys. They are impregnated by older men who are rich and respected. Some girls tell us that they are taken by men who come in cars and they go to defile them from their good houses where they live. Rwandans should all together stand up to take a role in the fight against this issue,” Nsabimana says.
    Statistics by Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) indicate that Rwanda’s judiciary received 1,591 child defilement cases in 2016, increased to 2,080 in 2017 and 1,727 in 2018.

    Another report by Rwanda Public Prosecution Authority shows that defilement case files submitted for prosecution increased from 1,819 in 2013/14 to 1,879 in 2014/15, reached 1,917 files in 2015/16, to 2086 in 2016/17 and 2,996 in 2017/18.

    The Director of Marembo Centre, Nicolette Nsabimana, says that at the Centre, hope for a good life is restored.