Author: IGIHE

{The American-born Senegalese singer Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, has said that Rwanda gives Africans reason to be sons and daughters of the continent.
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The 44-year-old singer-cum-businessman made the remark while delivering a speech during the Youth Conneckt 2017 Summit that took place in Kigali, Rwanda.

“Countries like Rwanda, give us the pride to say we are African, I am not saying just because am in Rwanda, even in other places I usually say the same. The youth have to be the foundation for the transformation of Africa.”

Akon explained that he finds everything in Rwanda to be organized, women are empowered and play a big role in the life of the nation. Youth who are abroad should play a role in the development of Africa”

Akon noted that women throughout the continent should be empowered so that they can play a role in the development of the world in general.

Akon last came to Rwanda in July 2015, to discuss some energy development programs with the government of Rwanda through RDB and the Ministry of Infrastructure.

{The High Court has upheld a Gasabo Intermediate Court sentence against the proprietor of Top Service Ltd, Mwitende Ladislas whose company used to supply fertilizers in the Northern Province and Eastern Province, was found guilty of misappropriating over Rwf 430 million.}

Mwitende was sentenced to serve a 7-year jail term on top of paying back a fine of more than Rwf 430 million to the Government.

The High Court said that Mwitende pleaded guilty of demanding extra money which was not worth the fertilizers he had supplied to farmers.

He is accused of using forged documents and falsely demanding over 454million from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources.

Mwitende had appealed the Gasabo intermediate court seven-year sentence to the High Court, saying that the sentence wasn’t fair and just, attributing his woes to envy from rival businessmen.

After court deliberations, the High Court judge yesterday ordered upheld the prior sentence, rendered toMwitende by intermediate court and ordered him to pay back the money including a 8% interest.

Mwitende was arrested on 3rd May 2016.

{The cooperation between Rwanda and Turkey has continued to grow, creating bonds in political, social economic and culture relations. It is believed that agreements signed between the two countries will strengthen ties through promotion, co-ordination as well as information, skills and knowledge sharing.
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Rwanda imports about $21 million worth of commodities from Turkey while in the last two years, delegations of Turkish investors have visited Rwanda to try and access business opportunities in the energy, mining and manufacturing sectors.
Both countries are committed to deepening bilateral trade and investment and will continue to work together and collaborate even further.

In an exclusive interview, the Turkish Ambassador to Rwanda HIS EXCELLENCE MEHMET RAIF KARACA spoke to IGIHE, sharing his thoughts about relations between the two countries and challenges Turkey is facing at present.

{{IGIHE: Where do we trace the Rwanda-Turkey relations over the years and how has the relationship between the two countries been evolving over the years?}}

Amb. Mehmet: You know this year on the 4th of July, President of Turkey RecepTayyip Erdoğan sent a congratulatory message to His Excellency President Paul Kagame.
Normally those messages are very standard, but the last sentence usually finishes in three different ways; Best wishes for your personal health and happiness, and for the prosperity and well-being of people of Rwanda.
Or Best wishes for personal health and happiness, prosperity, and well-being of friendly country of Rwanda.

The third one includes Best wishes for personal health and happiness, prosperity, and well-being of the brotherly of the country of Rwanda. And when our president wrote he put pen to paper the brotherly which to us shows the top level of intimacy that we have with the Rwandan government.

We consider Rwanda as a brotherly country with which we absolutely have no problem at all and we have no problem with the government. For us, Rwanda is, in Africa, like what everybody says, the oasis of stability and country of rapid economic growth and development compared to the general standards in Africa.

We want to use this place as a point of access to other African countries in the East Africa region. It has not only a safe clean environment that everyone already knows but it has the investment opportunities, investment laws, foreign exchange system; it is easy to operate businesses here which is very exceptional by African standards.
We are planning to use this place as the access point to other surrounding countries in the region. We are encouraging other Turkish companies to come to Rwanda.

{{What are some of the major areas of cooperation between the two countries?}}

Amb, Mehmet: Everybody is talking about the Kigali Convention Centre that was completed with Turkish skills support; but this is the beginning, more is yet to come.
We are hoping that many other things will follow this other Turkish company HAKAN to design, build, and finance, own and operate an 80-megawatt peat power plant in Rwanda.

It will produce 80-megawatt and is expected to increase to 100 in the future. Many delegates are coming; looking at investment opportunities. As you know, we have Turkish Airlines, and others. According to Rwanda Develop Board (RDB), Turkey has invested and got 13 investment licenses in the last five years. So it’s not bad as we just started to do. Turkish Airlines flies seven days a week, which is quite exceptional because they started to fly in 2012-13 and several times a week, it’s very high for a week.

{{How are they performing?}}

Amb Mehmet: Just like what I said two glorious stages, of course, making profits in investments is not very fast you have to wait before seeing how the performance is going but I have not heard of any complaints.
{{
Over a year ago there was an attempted coup in Turkey, how did your government manage to diffuse and how has the country moved on?}}

Amb Mehmet? On July 15, 2016, a terrorist attack was carried under the cover of a coup attempt by a group of soldiers and their collaborators who define themselves as the “Council for Peace at Home” and serve the enemies of to the Republic of Turkey. The terrorist attack that aimed at toppling the elected government and seizes power in Turkey was conducted by the ‘Fetullah Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO) which has been getting organized under the cover of a religious structure for over 40 years.

The terrorist attack against the Republic of Turkey revealed expressly that the goal of the FETO was to penetrate into all state institutions/organization in a conscious and organized way in order to seize the state.

The Presidential and the Turkish Grand National Assembly premises which represent the State the Republic and the National were bombed repeatedly for destruction. Over 250 were killed and 2,000 were critically wounded.

This organization is not only active in Turkey but in other countries as well including Africa. Currently, the Turkish government is carrying out a clean-up of-course it will take some time.

{{In Rwanda, there is Turkish School Hope Academy which was closed; why is your policy impeding on Turkish national’s investments outside Turkey.}}

Amb, Mehmet: In Africa, the FethullahGulen Movement (FETO) are organized, the way they organize themselves is that they open schools and business establishments, sometimes the school helps the business and sometimes the business helps the schools and so on.

Hope Academy just like some others schools in Africa are built by FETO. It was operated by FETO members, but I know that this is a question that is often asked but the Embassy has nothing to do with it.

We didn’t come up to the Rwandan Government with any official demand (For the school to be closed) and I don’t believe the Rwandan Government is the type of Government that will accept to do something just because the other government is asking. It is not that simple.

But all the documents especially materials we have forwarded to Rwandan Government, because they also have an Embassy in Ankara, I am sure they were also keeping an eye on this relevant information. Of-course Rwanda government was following up on the issue.

They knew very well what was going on and they knew how sensitive it is. They closed the school; we heard about closure after the school was closed by the Rwandan Government. We did not know in advance.

We heard on the last day of the school it was the 2nd of June, 2017 it was only after it was closed that we heard about it. We did not come to Rwanda government with a request for the school to be closed.
{{
In the next five years, where do you see the bilateral relations between the two countries heading?}}

Amb, Mehmet: As I said politically we don’t have any problem between ourselves; Rwanda and Turkey are supporting each other in international organizations.
So we have to concentrate on economy and culture exchange as the starting stage.

{Jack Ma, a Chinese business magnate who is the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a family of Internet-based businesses, is in Rwanda.}

Jack Ma arrived in Kigali yesterday, to attend the YouthConnect Africa 2017 Summit hosted by H.E. President Paul Kagame and organized in collaboration with UNDP and UNCTAD, from 19 – 21 July 2017, Kigali, Rwanda.

The summit has provided a platform for all partners involved in youth development to synergize around policies, programs, and partnerships that will help unleash Africa’s youth potential.

The summit also marks the official roll out of the program across the rest of the continent and has attracted more than 3000 delegates including Heads of State, government leaders, executives from multinational companies that operate in Africa, leaders of civil society organizations, Africa’s development partners, members of the academia, successful young entrepreneurs, artists and youth opinion leaders from across the continent.

Jack Ma and UNCTAD Special Adviser on Young Entrepreneurs are gracing the occasion and will be welcomed by President Kagame at Village Urugwiro.
Born September 10, 1964, Jack Ma is currently the richest person in Asia and the 14th richest in the world, with a net worth of US$41.8 billion, as of June 2017.

He has become a global icon in business and entrepreneurship, one of the world’s most influential businessmen, and a philanthropist known for expounding his philosophy of business. He was ranked 2nd in Fortune’s 2017 “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” list.

{Two male suspects are in police custody suspected of hacking a 39-year-old Ladislas Nzarubara a resident of Ramba cell in Ramba sector Nyaruguru district on Wednesday, July 18th.}

Nzarubara whose body was found on the roadside is said to have been killed by the two men after they clashed in a brawl over a girl in a bar they were drinking from.
Police spokesperson in Southern Province IP Emmanuel Kayigi confirmed to IGIHE that the two men are under policy custody over suspected murder.

“We arrested the two men on suspicion of crime after witnesses told us that the two suspects followed the deceased after getting embroiled in an argument over a girl in a bar where they were drinking from.” IP Kayigi told IGIHE

The people who witnessed the brawl in the bar also claimed the two suspects could have killed him since they followed him when everyone in the bar thought everything had ended.

According to investigations carried by Police, it has also been revealed that a murder weapon belonging to one of the suspects was recovered by police in his house with stains of blood after they unsuccessfully washed off the blood.

The two whoare being held at Mata police post while the deceased’s body was taken Munini hospital for post-mortem.