Author: IGIHE

Residents of Mwanganzara Village, Mburabuturo Cell, Muko Sector where the incident took place said that the trio cut electricity wires that supplied seven households during day, and came back in the evening telling them that each household would have to pay Rwf2500 if they wanted to get electricity back easily.

The residents refused, and one of them immediately took the complaint to REG customer care staff who responded that they were not aware of the said staff let alone the disconnections.

Residents spent the whole week in darkness before catching one of the culprits who revealed the identity of his accomplices.

Ismail Niyibizi, one of the people who faced this problem says that they incurred serious inconveniences including giving their money which was not reimbursed.

“At around 11 am the electricity went off and we thought it would soon be back as usual. As came back from town at around 8 pm, I found people over the house moving cables. On seeing me, they ran away and I ran after them too. They told me that they are REG employees and that they will come back the next day when they have enough tools, but when we asked REG, they told us they do not know them and we spent the whole week in darkness,” he said.

REG Director in the Northern Province, Eng. Marcel Nzamurambaho said they got to learn about the incident from the residents and started pursuing the culprits until they caught them.

“Because the residents already know that electricity repair services are given for free, they were suspicious when they saw them swiftly cutting cables and later asking them to pay for the costs of repair. So in collaboration with Rwanda Investigation Bureau, we pursued them. Now the suspects are all in police custody. We reconnected the households to electricity and encouraged them to always give us information about suspicious characters,” he said.

RIB country spokesperson Modeste Mbabazi said all those being charged with the theft of electricity and impersonating REG workers will be punished by law if they are found guilty.

Green Hills Academy students have been going to Rutunga Sector over the last 5 years to visit historical sites which harbors Rwanda’s royal history.

This year is unique because the students, accompanied by some of their teachers, participated in Umuganda (community activity) with other residents and paid for health insurance for 150 residents living with disabilities from 25 vulnerable families.

One of the students, Louis Ganza, says that they will continue helping the poor.

“Usually, we collect money for some of our activities as students, but it is for the first time that we have paid for health insurance for vulnerable people. We intend to continue doing it,” he said.

Green Hills Academy secondary school’s head teacher, Anna Bagabe told IGIHE that this charitable work was proposed by the students.

“The students found it better in addition to visiting, to as well help the poor in this area for the first time through umuganda and paying for their mutuelle de santé. That’s something they were very happy at,” she said.

During the community activity, Green Hills students together with residents cleared the bushes along the road to Rutunga Stadium and built kitchen gardens for two people with disabilities.

The Supreme Court revealed the alarming state in its report in a press conference on Friday.

Chief Justice, Prof. Sam Rugege, said that “Obviously, the number of cases rose in primary courts, in 2016 there were 21 cases, 69 in 2017 and 1,311 in 2018. That is, they have been considerably increased in 2018. ”

Kicukiro Primary Court granted the most divorce cases for 210 couples, Gasabo Primary Court,190, and Nyarugenge Primary Court granted 157 divorces.

The figures of the Supreme Court show that the number of cases filed electronically was 21 in 2016, 69 in 2017 and 1,311 in 2018.

Chief Justice Sam Rugege added that when people decide to end their marriage, there is nothing to do because they have to divorce, but there should be a way of tracking the family in case of problems so that they do not have to separate or kill each other.

Sometimes, he further said, The divorce process is done fast, but it is often a matter of sharing the wealth that delays the trial until the case is taken to high court.

He says that this should not be the case but people are supposed to talk to a family or assisted by their friends or family heads so that their problems can be settled without necessarily being taken to court.

“Often, when cases are taken to courts, many people go back home dissatisfied and that is not what we want,” he said.

The entire campaign period (from 14 October to 10 November 2018) witnessed various customer engagement initiatives. Customers and frontline staff were recognized and rewarded for their patronage and exemplary service respectively, while customer service teams who had demonstrated excellence in driving process improvements and implemented innovative solutions to enhance customer experience were awarded special recognition.

The brand also conducted trainings, team-building activities, and contests that emphasized the importance of customer happiness and service excellence.

For Unimoni [formerly UAE Exchange in Rwanda], Customer Month not only cements the central role of customer happiness in everything it does but is a reminder for the brand’s global teams that its success stems from constantly enhancing the customers’ experience.
Unimoni is a renowned global provider of Money Transfer, Foreign Exchange, Payment, and Credit solutions, facilitating the seamless movement of money across geographies, currencies, and channels to enable our customers to achieve their financial ambitions. They offer multiple customer touch-points including retail stores, digital and mobile solutions, and self-service kiosks.

The intercepted merchandise smuggled include 319 bales of used shoes and 50 bales of secondhand clothes locally known as caguwa.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Elias Mwesigye, the Commanding Officer (CO) for the Rwanda National Police (RNP) Marine Unit, said the merchandise was seized from five Congolese nationals, who were also taken into custody.

Those who were trying to smuggle it include Byadunia Barume, Mulikuza Busani Nikora, Bahati Bahavu Christian, Kameme Elie, and Mungoakonkwa Amini Bosco.

ACP Mwesigye said the boat was seized thanks to a tip-off from members of the public.

“We had earlier in the day received information about a boat that would be heading to Karongi District from Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, through Lake Kivu”, ACP Mwesigye said.

“Marine officers were deployed and the boat loaded with the merchandise was intercepted at about 9 pm, as it approached Nyamunini Island. Five people, all Congolese, who were on board were immediately taken into custody,” he added.

Marine police is charged with, among others, fighting illegal commercial activities and other crimes in national water bodies including illegal cross-border.

The goods, ACP Mwesigye said, were handed over to Revenue Protection Unit (RPU), a Rwanda National Police (RNP) arm attached to Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) to fight fraud and smuggling, among others.

According to RPU said merchandise weighing about 10.5 tonnes, had evaded taxes amounting to over Rwf48.7 million.

A kilogram of used clothes and shoes pays US$4 in taxes.

ACP Mwesigye said the suspects committed two offenses; “fraud and illegal cross-border.”
Under the East African Community Management Act, which is applicable in Rwanda, seized smuggled goods under article 199, are auctioned.

Illegal cross-border is also punishable under article 44 of law No. 57/2018 of 13/08/2018 relating to emigration and migration.

“Illegal activities in water bodies can be dangerous; smugglers often overload their boats to maximize profits, which can also turn disastrous; the boat can capsize leading to loss of lives,” the Commanding Officer said.

He, however, said that the “strong partnership” with fishing cooperatives in Lake Kivu and neighboring communities continue to yield positive results against illegal activities like smuggling and illegal fishing, among others.

When cessation clause deadline which ended refugee status for the Rwandans who fled the country from 1959 to 1998 comes into force on December 31, 2018, Uganda announced it would not end the refugee status for over ‘14000’ Rwandan refugees who live there, revealing that it had started the processes of offering them citizenship.

However, last week, Uganda’s Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness, and Refugees Hillary Onek told lawmakers of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in Kampala that Uganda was considering canceling their refugee status and instead issuing them with temporary permits.

“We are going to turn them over to the immigration department so that their long stay in Uganda will be subjected to immigration laws because immigration laws in Uganda say that you are given a visa to stay for three months. Thereafter you have to justify your further stay in a country,” Mr. Onek said as quoted by Daily Monitor.

Exclusively speaking to IGIHE, the Director of Refugee Affairs Unit at the Ministry of Emergency Management, Jean Claude Rwahama said Uganda’s decision is commendable as there is no ample reason Rwandans should live as refugees.

“We had discussed canceling the refugee status for Rwandans in Uganda and our diplomats carried out several visits to Uganda sharing refugees with information on their country. We actually thought Uganda was among countries that would have canceled refugee status but it didn’t go the way we expected. Canceling Rwandan refugee status is a commendable step because there is no reason for any Rwandan to live as a refugee as Rwanda is peaceful,” Rwahama said.

Rwahama says in case Uganda’s decision is implemented, Rwandan refugees will benefit most.

“When they repatriate, Rwandan refugees will enjoy more freedom because Rwandans usually travel to Uganda using only Identity cards which is impossible for refugees. This will give them rights to travel from Rwanda to Uganda vice versa more easily,” he said.

Rwahama said Rwandan refugees will be warmly welcomed as it is done for other nationals coming back to their mother nation.

The car park has so far cost over Rwf750 million of Rwf1.3 billion that it will have cost upon completion.

The construction project started in August 2017, in collaboration between Rwamagana District and Rwanda Federation of Transport Cooperatives (RFTC).

The second phase has been completed, left with the third phase to completion.

Rwamagana District vice-mayor in charge of economic affairs, Regis Mudaheranwa, told IGIHE that the car park will be available for use before the end of November.

It is expected that the third phase of the project comprised of building commercial buildings will be done later.

“On November 30th, the car park will be open for public use. The rest will be to put up a commercial building,” he said.

Said Habimana, a driver who uses Rwamagana park regularly says that they have not been finding enough passengers in an alternative car station they have been using because of its structure.

“People from the city rarely board taxis here because they have to take bicycles to get here. It has been very difficult for us to get passengers here but now that the new car park is completed, we hope we will never have any losses,” he said.

Aloys Hakizimana, a motorcyclist says it’s a great pleasure to start working in the new station.

“In this station, we have not been finding passengers, only a few people come to board cars here. Others board at different bus stops making it difficult for us to find passengers,” he said.

He made these remarks in Kigali on Thursday when he opened East and Central Africa Social Security Association (ECASSA 2018) a conference that brought together social security professionals, experts, managers and policy makers from countries in Central and Eastern Africa and beyond under the theme “Towards Universal Health Coverage-Regional perspective”.

Within two days, the participants will discuss how to help Africans live better lives without anyone left behind.

“Rwanda has achieved a lot in terms of helping every citizen to live a healthy life. For instance, among the goals of MDGs 4 and 5 that have been achieved are infant mortality rate that was reduced by 74 percent while maternal mortality rate is at 78 percent from 1990 to 2015,” Minister Ndagijimana said.

ECASSA Secretary-General, Dr Frederick Ntimarubusa, reminded participants that Rwanda ranks first in sub-Saharan Africa for having a large number of people living with health insurance.

ECASSA’s new CEO, Richard Tusabe, and the Director-General of RSSB, said that Rwanda is committed to ensuring that all people have access to health insurance.
Tusabe said thtt they also thought about people in informal sector, so that they could also have good health as other people, at a low cost.

ECASSA Conference brings together leaders of social security institutions from nine countries, including Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Zanzibar, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as other international organizations such as International Labor Organization (ILO), and International Social Security Association (ISSA).

The handover was held on November 20 at the district head office.

Kirehe District has 612 agricultural extension workers, one per village.

One agricultural consultant, Pierre Mbanzabigwi from Gatore Sector, who has served as an agricultural extension worker for eight years said they are grateful to the government for helping them with transport which was a challenge for them.

“We have been asking for the bicycles over the last five years, and they told us that they would find them for us; now we thank the government,” he said.

Commenting on how the bicycle is going to help them, he said:

“The bicycles are going to help us reach people who need different assistance. It was difficult because we walked about four kilometers to check on farmers and advise them on handling armyworms and other services like how to use seeds and manure.”

Jean Damascene Nsengiyumva, the Mayor of Kirehe District said that the beneficiaries are required to use the means to improve their work by reaching out to farmers whenever the need so arises.