Author: IGIHE

Tanzania Experiences Country-Wide Power Outage

“A technical fault … caused all regions connected to the national power grid to lose electricity supply,” the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) said in a statement.

The outage occurred at around 04:00 GMT on Thursday, and it was still trying to fix the fault, the company said.

Partial blackouts occur regularly in Tanzania, which relies on hydro, natural gas and heavy fuel oil to generate electricity. Many businesses use power generators as backups, pushing up their operating costs.

Tanzania invited bids in August to build a 2,100-megawatt (MW) hydroelectric plant in a World Heritage site renowned for its animal population, despite opposition from conservationists to the long-delayed project.

Tanzanian president John Magufuli is personally backing the project at Stiegler’s Gorge in the UNESCO-designated Selous Game Reserve and sees it as vital to diversify Tanzania’s energy mix and end chronic electricity shortages.

The project would more than double the country’s current power generation capacity of around 1,500MW. The government did not say how much the project would cost and how it would raise financing, but wants it completed within three years.

Tanzania’s energy infrastructure has suffered from decades of underinvestment, neglect and corruption allegations, and investors have long complained that the lack of reliable power hurts business in East Africa’s third biggest economy.
Source:VOA

November 30, 2017
AU/EU Summit : European Countries blocking migration of Africans blamed for the rise in slavery

Many countries want the African Union-European Union summit in Abidjan to strongly condemn the eruption of modern slavery, but the Libyan government and its allies are trying to dilute a proposed declaration, according to South African officials.

They said Libya and Egypt in particular were pushing for Libya not to be mentioned in the declaration, which they want to be restricted to a general condemnation of modern slavery.

Some Libyan officials are even claiming that the video transmitted by CNN purporting to record an auction of men offered to Libyan buyers as farmhands and sold for $400 is fake.

The video was presented as confirmation of earlier reports of the existence of markets for trading migrants in Libya.

The SA officials said that Egypt recognised the severity of the problem but didn’t think that naming and shaming Libya would be helpful. Others told them that the slavery problem had served to remind the world of the huge problem the country still faces and therefore the need for help.

It was not clear on Tuesday how the dispute would be resolved as ministers from the 55 AU countries and 28 EU countries still had to meet to finalise the declaration and documents for the summit, which starts on Wednesday.

One official said that President Jacob Zuma would commend the Libyan government for its announced intention to investigate the slave auction allegations.

The slavery issue has been caught up in the wider controversy of migration from Africa to Europe, which will be a major topic of the summit.

Some Africans are blaming the EU for the eruption of slavery because they say it’s the result of European countries blocking the migration of Africans to their continent.

African officials are also blaming the EU for other human rights abuses by Africans against fellow Africans in detention centres which have been established in Libya to hold illegal migrants who have been returned from Europe. The officials said that the EU had donated $100-million to establish these detention centres and so had “bloody hands”.

EU officials have insisted that they are only repatriating illegal migrants who are experiencing difficulties in Europe and are helping to re-integrate them in their home countries.

The EU officials said they are also trying to stop human trafficking of migrants as well as increasing legal migration from Africa to Europe.

Another issue which has blown up here during meetings of officials from the two continents is over the protection of LGBTI people against discrimination. Most of the EU countries have been pushing for a clause in the joint declaration which explicitly forbids such discrimination.

But some African countries – specifically Zimbabwe and Egypt – are opposed. One southern African official said the Zimbabwean position is that LGBTI people are “not minorities, they are deviants”.

South Africa proposed a compromise that the explicit language proposed for the declaration should be replaced by the language of the AU’s Maputo Plan of Action on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

That plan fudged the issue by calling for “gender equality… protecting the rights of women, men, adolescents and youth to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to sexual and reproductive health, free from coercion, discrimination and violence….”

But the SA officials said some EU member states were still pushing for more explicit protection of LGBTI people.

South Africa played a key role in ensuring that the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) – also known as Western Sahara – would be represented at the summit. Officials said as late as October 16 that the summit host, Cote d’Ivoire, had not yet invited SADR, because of the objections of Morocco. Morocco only rejoined the AU in January and does not recognise the SADR as an independent state, regarding it as part of Morocco.

Several other AU states called for the summit to be moved from Abidjan to the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa if SADR was not invited. They invoked an AU rule that no AU member could be excluded from an AU meeting.

South Africa proposed as a compromise that AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki should meet Moroccan King Mohammad VI to find a solution. The officials said the king was surprised to discover that his officials had pressured the Ivorean government not to invite SADR. Shortly after Faki’s meeting with the king, SADF received an invitation and later confirmed it would attend.

Mohammad VI is scheduled to give a keynote speech at the summit, along with Zuma – who will talk about the relations between the AU and the UN on peace and security issues – as well as Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Chadian President Idriss Deby.

Another hotly disputed topic revealing serious differences between the continents is the funding of peacekeeping operations. SA officials said that the African countries contributing troops to the AU’s vital peacekeeping force in Somalia, Amison – Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Burundi – had met in New York in September and threatened to pull out because of the high costs involved.

That was after the EU had announced it could not guarantee its 30% contribution to the Amisom budget after April 2018.

The officials said that after the countries contributing troops issued their threat to withdraw – which would have collapsed Somalia – the EU reversed its decision to withhold funding.

But the funding of peacekeeping is still an issue as the AU maintains that this should be solely a UN responsibility, but the UN disagrees. The UN pays 60% of the Amisom budget, for instance, while other countries such as China pay the remaining 10%.

The SA officials said that the AU plan to self-finance 25% of African peacekeeping operations should be seen as a temporary measure, pending UN realisation of its full responsibilities.

The officials said the fact that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir – who is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court (ICC) – would not be attending the summit had not become an issue.

A regional official said there was no way Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara would have invited Bashir to the summit, since the ICC is trying his arch-rival Laurent Gbagbo for alleged crimes committed in the civil war between them after disputed elections in 2010.

SA officials said the EU had wanted to include strong support for the ICC in the good governance section of the joint declaration which will be issued at the end of the summit. But the AU had insisted this be removed.

The officials said that newly inaugurated Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa would not attend the summit.

Zuma arrived in Abidjan late on Wednesday for the summit and was due to have meetings with top EU officials to lobby for support for South Africa’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council from 2019 to 2020.

Zuma was to meet Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and Juri Ratas, Prime Minister of Estonia, which currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

South African officials said that Zuma would also push the EU leaders for a South Africa-EU summit next year – especially because this is the tenth anniversary of the elevation of relations between the two to summit level as a “strategic partnership”

The officials pointed out that Zuma was concerned that the last summit between South Africa and the EU – they’re supposed to be annual – had been held as far back as 2013.

In his meetings with Juncker and Ratas, Zuma would also stress the need to change the nature of the relations between the African Union and the EU, “from a post-colonial model of dependency to a new partnership of interdependence that addresses Africa’s development challenges and contributes to shared prosperity between the two continents”, the Presidency said in a statement.

Zuma would also urge the European leaders to recognise and respect that the resolution of conflicts in Africa was primarily the responsibility of the AU, officials said.

The summit theme is officially “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in Youth”. The focus will be on increasing European investment in Africa as well as providing vocational training for youth to enable them to take advantage of this investment through employment.AU/EU Summit: European countries blocking the migration of Africans blamed for rise in slavery

November 30, 2017
Kagame meets UN boss

“President Kagame meets with Antonio Gueterres, United Nations Secretary General on the sidelines of the 5th AU-EU Summit 2017 in Abidjan,” reads the tweet of the office of the president.

Kagame is in Abidjan, Ivory Coast where he is attending the 5th African Union-European Union (AU-EU) Summit.

The two day summit which started this Wednesday is being conducted under the theme ‘Investing in youth for a sustainable future’

2017 is a defining year for AU-EU relations as it has been ten years since the adoption of the Joint Africa-EU strategy.

November 30, 2017
Six reasons fathers should nurture children

It is widely believed, especially in African traditions, that babysitting work belongs to females and some people pejoratively give a nickname of ‘Mr Mom’ to any man who involves much in children.

Dr. Kyle D. Pruett M.D., a Clinical Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine in the United States of America, says a nurturing father has a positive influence on a child’s development but men also benefit from nurturing children in return.

Dr Pruett says children are not selective about who, between mom and dad, should nurture them but they just prefer the one who spends more time with them without getting enough of them.

He cites some benefits that should make every man care for his children including babysitting them.

{{1. Child becomes more active}}

When a father nurtures a child in the first five years from the birth, a child develops more positive changes than if they were exclusively nurtured by the mother.

Research shows that during the first five years of a child’s life, fathers are often more influential than mothers in how the child learns to manage his or her body, face novel social circumstances and play. One study of 6-week-old babies, using videotapes of parents interacting with their infants, suggests that children are hard-wired at birth to respond differently to males and females.

“When approached by their mothers, babies tended to relax, coo, and modulate their breathing and cardiovascular responses—as if to sort of say, ‘Ah, here’s Mom.’ Then when the father approached, the babies’ eyes tended to open, the shoulders would go up and the heart and respiratory systems were activated rather than calmed, as if to say, ‘Here’s Dad, let’s party!’”

{{2. Child’s body gets stronger quickly}}

Research indicate that 9 out of 10 times that a mother picks up a child are similarly conducted. She plays with the child in the same way and at the same speed. This is different from how men hold babies because men do not have rules set in their mind about how to hold a child. Men can hold a child by child’s arms, legs or any other way and sometimes getting a child out of their comfort zones, making a child stronger and bolder so quickly.

Men also help children develop different talents at a younger age through playing with them different games because they do not use toys as much as women do in their interactions with children.

{{3. Child develops confidence earlier
}}

Men train children on self esteem by subjecting them to tough tasks or sending them to frightening environments in order to test how children handle the situation. Though the father will be around to save the child if any danger emerges, children are trained to handle tough situations themselves, something that women rarely dare do to children. This makes children at two years old prefer to get out with their dads than moms.

Even from birth, children who have an involved father are more likely to be emotionally secure, be confident to explore their surroundings, and, as they grow older, have better social connections with peers. These children also are less likely to get in trouble at home, school or in the neighbourhood.

{{4. Child develops love for both parents
}}

Dr Pruett says that most children say they like mom over their father because they spent longer time with mom during their age of emotional and social development.

When a dad nurtures babies, they usually love him all their life and ask him, at their adolescence age, even questions that often go to moms. Those children are less prone to succumb to adolescence challenges.

{{5. Fathers get better life and last longer in jobs}}

Dr Pruett says the nurturing fathers get better life and do better at work because they learn patience from nurturing children, increasing their chances to retain the job longer.

{{6. Nurturing men improve family wealth}}

A man who does not care of his children is likely to wreck the family into poverty because he rarely thinks of what the family needs. However, a nurturing father strives to provide for his children and often creates peaceful environment in the family.

Despite the fact that fatherlessness remains one of the toughest domestic issues, Dr Pruett says the state of fatherhood is getting better.

The author of other two books, “Father need: Why Father Care Is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child,” and “Me, Myself and I: How Children Build Their Sense of Self,” says the combination of mom and dad’s child care is vital into child’s physical and intellectual development.

November 30, 2017
1336 candidates register for the 11th accounting professional examinations

The 11th iCPAR CPA and CAT examinations are being conducted from 27th November to 1st December 2017 at two different centers: Kigali Independent University (ULK) and Huye Campus of the University of Rwanda (UR).

A total of 1336 candidates are registered for December examinations where 911 candidates registered to sit for CPA examinations while 425 candidates registered to sit for CAT examinations in December 2017.

As the Professional Accountancy Organization mandated by law to regulate the Accounting profession in Rwanda with one of its mandate to organize and conduct relevant examinations, iCPAR aims at producing a critical mass of qualified professional accountants for Rwanda Market and the region.

The Institute is committed to produce critically a mass of qualified accountants needed by the Rwandan economy and filling the existing gap as identified by numerous needs assessments like the 2015 ROSC A&A, among others.

Currently a total of 19 candidates completed CPA – Rwanda qualification while 31 candidates completed the CAT -Rwanda qualification.

Quality accountants are at the heart of the development of Capital Markets, you need reliable and credible financial information to build investor confidence, enhance economic development and increase attractiveness of a country’s investment climate thereby encouraging inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI) and general business development.

Therefore, It is important for the public and private sector in Rwanda to realize the importance of hiring professional accountants who are registered and hence regulated and have this as a prerequisite to being considered for employment.

ICPAR is also a member of the Panafrican Federation of Accountants (PAFA) and Associate member of the International Federation of Accounting (IFAC).

November 29, 2017
Kagame in Ivory Coast for AU-EU summit

Upon Kagame’s arrival in Abidjan, Ivory Coast at Félix-Houphouët-Boigny airport he was received by President Alassane Ouattara, reads Office of the President’s Tweet.

This year’s summit is being conducted under the theme ‘Investing in youth for a sustainable future’.

African and European Heads of State and Government gather for the summit including the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk; the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker; the President of the African Union, IdrissDéby and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, MoussaFaki.

2017 is a defining year for AU-EU relations as it has been ten years since the adoption of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy.

Taking stock of the progress made since the Brussels Summit in 2014, African and European Leaders will be given the opportunity to provide guidance in order to jointly address current and future challenges and to deepen their strategic partnership, launched in 2007 with the adoption of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy.

November 29, 2017
Bugesera men and women in blame game over violence

Organized by the journalists network PAX PRESS in partnership with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), the debate coincided with the launch of a nationwide anti-violence campaign under the theme “End violence against women and girls: Speak out.”

Innocent Rutayisire, a resident of Nyarugenge, said: “There is a kind of untold violence against men and it is on the rise because we feel ashamed reporting violence against us.”

“While men are still the breadwinner of the family, women are often behind the misuse of family resources such as in beer consumption and affairs with other men, he stated. “There were incidences where a husband came back home and found another man in his bed.”

Jean Baptiste Mbarubukeye, a resident of Kamabare Village in Ngenda Cell, said he knows cases of men who are beaten by their wives. Some of those men opted to leave their families. Mbarubukeye blamed the violence against men on what he termed “the supremacy that government has given to women.” The concern was also shared by a number of other men attending the debate.

Another participant, John Birindabagabo, said “women face violence at a higher rate but men also face it at a rate no one can determine because men rarely report the violence against them by their wives. Women are often envious of neighbours’ living conditions and put pressure on their husbands to provide beyond their capacities. If a man fails to do as a wife wishes, she starts getting around siding with other men. Isn’t that violence?”

{{Women, statistics disprove claims}}

Veredian Mukankusi, a resident of Nyarugenge Sector, said “not only do women face violence but also men do. Some young boys are forced to have sex with adult women.”

Clotilde Nyirangirababyeyi, 44 years old, said most of the men who abandon their families and live in Nyagatare District or Uganda are frustrated by the emancipation of women, which does not allow men to mistreat their wives and use family resources as they please.

“I was born and still live in this sector. I know how men have always violated women’s rights, especially before 1994 when most men including my uncles had up to three wives.” She told the audience that she was forced into marriage when she was 14-years old and became a wife to a 48-year old man.

“Now that government has changed power relations by new laws, some men are unhappy and claim to face violence only because they are frustrated,” added the mother of four children.

Priscilla Uwiragiye, the Bugesera vice Mayor in charge of Social Affairs, acknowledged violence against men but on a smaller scale than women. “Some people misinterpret the meaning of gender balance. They believe that it reduces the power of men and makes women superior to men. But in fact the policy seeks to promote equality and inclusiveness in decision-making both at family and national levels,” she said, adding that “no one should exercise violence against another. The government did not give space to women so that they step on men.”

Uwiragiye urged the residents to work together and avoid conflicts aiming to embrace the development in their families. “We shall keep sensitizing residents on fighting against violence especially during the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence,” she added.

Statistics from the police office in Bugesera indicate that 43 victims of violence were recorded in October 2017, including 12 women, 28 girls, two men and one boy. The statistics also show that 565 girls between 12 and 18 years were impregnated through violence in the first nine months of 2017. Among them, 29 early pregnancies were recorded in Nyarugenge alone, one of the 15 sectors of the district.

November 29, 2017
Rwandan Diaspora in Germany construct RWf90 million worth of facilities in Musanze

Among the facilities are classrooms and other commercial structures.

Five classrooms, 12 latrines and one staff room were constructed at Ruhehe Primary School in Gatagara sector, and one house was constructed in for Byangabo market-based tailors.

The vice-head teacher in charge of academics at Ruhehe Primary School, Diogène Kavumu said that new classrooms will help reduce congestion.

“We are thankful for Rwandan Diaspora in Germany for such invaluable contribution to our school. These classrooms will help us reduce congestion. We used to have 60 students in one classroom but they will not exceed 45,” he said adding that staff room will help teachers work in comfortable environments.

The coordinator of Rwandan Diaspora in Germany, Claude Kalimba said that it is their target to back government’s development programmes by creating good learning environment for Rwandan children and contribute in changing communities’ lives.

“By this gesture we wanted to show that there are Rwandans who are committed to build their nation. We should differ from others who have chosen the way to oppose government programmes,” he said.

Last year, Rwandan Diaspora in German also constructed 15 classrooms worth Rwf124 million at Groupe Scholaire Nyarubara in Musanze District.

November 29, 2017
Israel to open Embassy in Rwanda

After the discussion between both heads of states, Netanyahu wrote on his twitter handle that they agreed to open Israel’s embassy in Rwanda.

” With Rwandan President Paul Kagame today. I informed him that Israel will open, for the 1st time, an embassy in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. This historic step comes as Israel is expanding its presence in Africa and deepening its cooperation with countries across the continent,” tweet reads.

The embassy is set to further deepen diplomatic relations and cooperation between the two nations.

The two nations have enjoyed warm bilateral ties over the years with their cooperation touching various developmental and diplomatic aspects. These include agriculture, technology and innovation, business among others.

Rwanda’s embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel was established in 2015. The Israeli embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is the one covering Rwanda so far.

November 29, 2017
Rights organisations in Israel oppose govt decision to transfer immigrants to Rwanda

The call was made on Monday 27th November, 2017.

Last week, Israel’s government confirmed in four months they will have closed Holot immigrants’ camp and a total of 40,000 from African countries like Eritrea and Sudan will be sent to Rwanda whereas others who wish can be repatriated to their respective countries.

According to BBC, seven rights non-government organisations working in Israel confirmed that Israel and Rwanda will meet in the near future to finalise the agreements.

At the beginning of last year, Foreign Affairs Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo announced that there were no agreements signed between Rwanda and Israel related with hosting refugees.

She however confirmed that discussions were underway.

“We are among countries that two years back negotiated with Israel to receive immigrants. We did not finalise the talks but it is true that they approached us,” she explained.

She said that migration and emigration officials from both countries were still discussing about requirements to transfer these immigrants, their behaviors and their long term status they would be given.

Last week, Israel based Haaretz media house wrote that Israel will pay the Rwandan government $5,000 for every African immigrant it accepts from Israel. The Israeli government will additionally continue to pay immigrants who voluntarily leave the country a grant of $3,500, as well as the cost of their airlines tickets out of the country.

Rights organisations and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) opposed the Israeli government’s decision saying that it is even difficult to find out information about lives of immigrants who were transferred in African countries since 2013 to 2017.

November 28, 2017