Author: John Mbaraga

The three-year partnership will see the new “Visit Rwanda” logo featured on the left sleeve of all first team, under-23 and Arsenal Women’s matches from the new season starting in August.

The deal will among others highlight Rwanda’s tourism offerings such as the National Parks, which are attracting record number of tourists due to growing numbers of wildlife including black rhino, lions, zebra, chimpanzees and the famous mountain gorillas, as well as the investment opportunities in the country.

Rwanda Development Board Chief Executive Officer, Clare Akamanzi said that Rwanda is thrilled with the partnership.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Arsenal and showcasing the vibrancy and beauty of our country. Rwanda is a country pulsing with energy, creativity and innovation. Visit Rwanda and discover why we are the second fastest growing economy in Africa. Investors in Rwanda are able to register their businesses in only six hours and prepare to enjoy the opportunities accrued from the free trade agreements that we’ve signed with over 50 countries,” she said.

“Renowned for our incredible and unique Mountain Gorilla tracking experience, tourist can also enjoy a variety of water sports, cycling, hiking, bird watching to list a few of the touristic attractions available while in Rwanda,” she said.

Rwanda is ranked as the third easiest place to do business in Africa by the World Bank and has been awarded for its leadership in tourism and competitiveness by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the World Economic Forum respectively.

“In addition, we are telling investors to Visit Rwanda and discover why we are the second fastest growing economy in Africa, growing at 7.3% per annum. We want them to know that investors in Rwanda are able to register their businesses in only six hours and immediately enjoy the opportunities accrued from the free trade agreements that we’ve signed with over 50 countries”, Akamanzi added.

{{Arsenal players to visit Rwanda}}

Arsenal players from the men’s and women’s teams will visit Rwanda and club coaches will host coaching camps to support the development of the game for boys and girls in the country.

Visit Rwanda will gain global exposure through branding on matchday LED boards, interview backdrops and the club’s stadium tour which attracts more than 250,000 visitors each year. They will also have the opportunity to engage Arsenal fans around the world through the club’s social media channels.

Arsenal’s Chief Commercial Officer, Vinai Venkatesham, said the partnership see the team supporting Rwanda’s ambition to build tourism industry.

“This is an exciting partnership which will see us support Rwanda’s ambition to build their tourism industry. The country has been transformed in recent years and Arsenal’s huge following will bring Rwanda into people’s minds in a new and dynamic way. The Arsenal shirt is seen 35 million times a day around the world and we are one of the most viewed teams around the world. We look forward to working with the Visit Rwanda team to further establish the country as a tourist destination,” Venkatesham said.

The partnership is also being supported by National Geographic who will promote Rwanda as an important tourist destination.

According to RDB, Rwanda received 1.3 Million visitor arrivals in 2017. 94,000 tourists visited Rwanda’s three national parks of Nyungwe National Park, Akagera National Park and Volcanoes National Park. Tourism has generated 90,000 jobs and is Rwanda’s largest foreign exchange earner.

The agreement signed between both countries means that all air service operations will be conducted under the fifth freedom arrangement.

The fifth freedom means that an airline has the right to carry passengers from one country to another and from that country to a third country. This means that RwandAir can now fly to Togo without any limitations.

Speaking at the signing ceremony yesterday, the State Minister for Transport in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Jean de Dieu Uwihanganye said that the agreement aims at opening the airspace for both countries.

“The most crucial component is that today Togo permitted us to use their airports and carry passengers from there to another country,” he explained.

He said that the same right was given to Togo’s airlines and through the agreement; both country’s careers can have particular partnership.

“Signing such agreement for a country like Rwanda is part of continuing to develop air transportation and extending RwandAir’s connections as it is in the Seven Year Government Programme,” he added.

The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport in Togo, Ninsao Gnofam said that the agreement allows RwandAir on cooperation with the West African Countries joint career, ASKY Airlines.

“The agreement facilitates our both countries’ careers to operate from the airports without limitations. It will help spur cooperation,” he said.

ASKY Airlines with headquarters in Togo operates from 23 directions of West African countries including Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Bamako, Bangui, Bissau, Brazzaville, Conakry, Cotonou, Dakar–Diass, Douala, Kinshasa–N’Djili, Lagos, Libreville, N’Djamena, Niamey, Ouagadougou, Pointe–Noire and Yaoundé.

Currently, Rwanda has signed airspace agreement with 82 countries from around the World, among them 37 signed the fifth freedom.

The accomplices on the same charges are Thabita Gwiza Mugenzi, Xaverine Mukangarambe, Edmond Bushayija also known as Sacyanwa and Jean Paul Turayishimiye all living outside Rwanda.

According to the Rwigaras lawyers, prosecution did not interrogate those accomplices before submitting the case file to court.

Lawyer Gatera Gashabana representing Adeline Rwigara said that prosecution should summon accomplices before the hearing resumes.

Prosecution said that they don’t have known addresses for them to send summons.

The presiding judge asked prosecution whether accomplices were interrogated and prosecution replied that when a suspect goes missing they can be prosecuted in absentia.

Prosecution said the law allows them to submit a case file for suspect at large and the court orders that person to report, regardless to whether they were interrogated or not. According to prosecution despite having not been interrogated, the accomplices should be prosecuted.

According to Lawyer Pierre Celestin Buhuru, Rwigaras’ accomplices were not pursued. He said that court should go through the process and inform them that they have a case in court.

Buhuru said that hearing would continue two months after realizing whether they will report to court or not.

Gashabana said thatprosecution had earlier said that one of co-accused lives in Boston, USA, and presented their phone number. He questioned whether the prosecution does not know where a person who they have phone number lives.

At the prosecution side, Faustin Nzakamwita said that having submitted the suspect’s phone number in the case file doesn’t mean that they got it from the owner.

For Buhuru, prosecution submitted a case file with six suspects but he and Gashabana are representing only two of them.

After two hours for deliberation, the presiding judge decided that the Rwigara co-accused should be summoned or the case file gets separated.

According to the presiding judge, though prosecution says that Gwiza lives in Toronto, Canada; Mukangarambe in USA; Bushayija in Belgium and Turayishimiye in USA, these are not complete addresses. As the law permits two months to summon a person, the presiding judge set the next hearing on July 24th 2018.

Kagame was speaking yesterday at the High-Level segment on Universal Health Coverage at the 71st World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

He said that the data show that catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditures are an increasing source of impoverishment in Africa though not yet to the extent seen in other regions.

He said that the insolvency may reflect the fact that many life-saving services are not yet widely available.

“As service coverage in Africa expands the financial risks for citizens will also increase unless adequate protection measures are in place for the most vulnerable,” he said.

Kagame noted that achieving Universal Health Coverage is feasible for countries at every income level.

“It is also the right thing to do. Strong political leadership will certainly be necessary at every stage,” he urged.

{{Rwanda’s experience}}

All around Africa and beyond Kagame said that whenever countries have put universal, community-based primary health systems in place, the results have been good.

In Rwanda he said that a combination of community-based health insurance, community health workers and good external partnerships led to the steepest reductions in child and maternal mortality ever recorded.

“The key was an approach that put individuals and communities at the centre. In choosing this path Rwanda learned from others who preceded us and we also benefited greatly from advice and support from the World Health Organisation,” he said.

“Integrating digital applications and new technologies into our health system has also made a difference and we are now using drone aircraft to quickly deliver blood and medical supplies to rural hospitals,” he said.

Kagame said that more than 90% of Rwandans are enrolled in health insurance today. He said that two-thirds of the costs are covered by contributions from beneficiaries with government subsidising the remaining one-third.

“At one point we realised that enrolment was falling because the reliability of services in some places had declined. The challenge was addressed and confidence restored by shifting to electronic payments for insurance premiums and segregating health funds from other accounts at the local level,” he noted.

The Head of State said that Rwanda continues to expand network of volunteer Community Health Workers who are present in every village and serve as an essential link between the population and health facilities.

Kagame said that when the means to succeed and the responsibility for doing so are put directly in the people’s hands, they save lives and become sustainable.

He reminded that Universal Health Coverage leads to future-mindedness and entrepreneurship as it frees people to plan for the future with confidence, and families invest the savings in businesses and in better-quality education for their children.

The mother Radio in Rwanda, working under Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA), was officially launched on May 27th 1961 in Kigali City.

However, the Radio broadcasting sets were in Burundi, former Ruanda-Urundi territory main headquarters.

In 1963, shortly after Rwanda’s independence, regime, the radio also started to work independently in Kigali. That is where the most popular and oldest Radio in Rwanda started from.

RBA celebrated 55-year anniversary yesterday in Kigali, in the ceremony that took place in Kigali Convention Centre. It was a colorful event that was attended by senior government officials, former and current employees of RBA and general community among others.

The radio was under government control before and during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, and was used by the then government to cultivate hate among the people.

Silas Mbonimana who started to work for Radio Rwanda in 1982 said that ethnic discrimination was also inside the institution.

“I started when there was good mood inside, but, as days passed, things changed to bad because of ethnicity. Every person wanted to know others’ origin, there were also extremists who wanted to harm colleagues,” he said.

After the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, the radio was used to unite Rwandans and preach new vision by the government.

Until 2003, it was the only radio that was operating in Rwanda. In 2004 private radios were opened and brought different programmes which helped them to dominate the radio that had been there for years.

As private radios had soft programmes like entertainment and sports, they attracted audience than Radio Rwanda with the majority being youth.

The changes in the industry forced Radio Rwanda to join the race and introduced similar programmes as well as recruiting young journalists.

{{Future of the radio}}

Speaking at the event yesterday, the RBA Director General, Arthur Asiimwe said that in next five years, they want to reform Radio Rwanda and affiliated radios so that they provide content based on people’s expectations.

“We want to be a leading and trusted media house; we need improvement,.. we want to work without bias,” he said.
He said that in five years, they want to raise quality, embrace creativity and capacity building among employees,” he added.

Speaking at the event, Prime Minister, Dr. Edouard Ngirente requested the radio to continue to facilitate people along the development journey by providing them relevant information.

“Rwandans need media that give them well researched development news. You have been doing that and we hope that you will continue. It is few months now since the government announced the seven-year government programme, the programme has different plans that Rwandans need to know about, so, they need deep explanations so that no one will be left behind,” he added.