Author: Nicole Kamanzi Muteteri

The foodstuffs and sanitary items were donated yesterday by Private School Teachers’ Association (Syneduc).

Each of the 200 teachers received a sack of rice, 5 liters of cooking oil and two bars of soap. Majority of the beneficiaries include teachers from nursery and primary schools who have not yet returned to work since Coronavirus emerged in Rwanda in March 2020.

Ukwitegetse Deborah, a teacher at Les Paradis des Anges primary school in Muhazi sector revealed that she has been hit hard as she was laid off as the pandemic hit hard.

“Receiving such support is a great gesture that the country takes care of us. We appreciate the kind gesture. The food items will help us to feed our families as we wait for the situation to return to normal and resume work,” she said.

Ufitabe Emmanuel another teacher, explained that he has been hard up during the pandemic and worked as a mason helper to feed his family.

“The foodstuffs will help our families and give us courage,” he said.

The executive secretary of Syneduc in Rwanda, Nkotanyi Abdon Faustin said the gesture is meant to help teachers who have not yet returned to work to meet some basic needs.

“We have supported 200 teachers in Rwamagana, Ngoma and Kirehe districts. The foodstuffs including rice, cooking oil and bars of soaps are worth Rwf5.5 million,” he noted.

Syneduc Rwanda is comprised of 7200 members.

The house located in Akagarama village, Bushobora cell of Remera sector in Gtasibo district was handed over to Mukangwije yesterday.

The house with cemented floor built from funds raised by DASSO members comprises of 3 rooms, sitting room, chairs, beds and beddings, a kitchen and bathroom as well.

Mukangwije expressed delight for the donation giving relief to live in a safe place in her advanced age.

“I express my appreciation to the good leadership under the stewardship of President Paul Kagame for making it possible to get the decent shelter during my advanced age. I wish them all blessings from above,” she told IGIHE.

Rugiranka Gaspard, the representative of DASSO members in Gatsibo district explained that they support government initiatives aimed at relocating people from risky zones.

Gatsibo district vice mayor for social affairs, Kantengwa Marry has commended DASSO members for the kind gesture and residents who provided any form of support through community work to complete the house.

The grand mother also received other items including mattresses, African print wrapper and a goat.

During the ceremony held yesterday, Munyeshyaka who once served as the Minister of Trade and Industry committed to increase awareness of BDF activities among targeted beneficiaries and maintain the reputation of the institution striving to uplift people from poverty.

Munyeshayaka was appointed by the cabinet meeting held on 14th December 2020 while Rosalie Semigabo was nominated to deputize him.

They all took over yesterday pledging to consolidate gains and continue supporting the mandate of the institution mainly supporting SMEs projects, thus enabling the creation of more jobs.

As he took over, Munyeshaka Vincent urged all BDF staff to work together to deliver excellent services.

“All BDF employees should concert efforts and work together with dedication to keep supporting citizens’ development,” he said.

Munyeshyaka explained that more efforts will be expended in awareness campaigns to demystify wrong perceptions about services of the institution.

“There was a problem whereby people thought that BDF can do everything making it difficult to match the institution’s capacity with people’s desires. We have a great task to reveal available means and explain how they will be utilized,” he noted.

During the event, Rwigamba Eric also took over from the outgoing Director of BDF Board Committee, Rugamba Egide.

“Every staff should understand his/her responsibility to contribute to improved welfare of Rwandans and supported citizens’ progress through concerted efforts,” said Rwigamba.

Rugamba Egide explained that a lot have been achieved educating people how to run income generating projects and urged successors to root on that to take the institution to greater heights.

BDF has so far supported over 35,000 projects worth over Rwf 96 billion since it was launched in 2011.

RNP spokesperson, CP John Bosco Kabera said that there are increased movements within prohibited hours, majority passengers traveling to and from upcountry.

“There are increased movements since December 23, of people going or coming from upcountry. Unfortunately, these people seem to have forgotten that there are directives, which must be followed in all aspects, even during this festive period, including prohibited movement hours—8pm to 4am,” CP Kabera said.

He added: “Today, we are seeing passenger service vehicles on roads transporting people within the prohibited movement hours. Let it be clear that 8pm is the time when everyone should be home not the time to be going home. The festive holidays did not change anything as far as the directives are concerned. Transporters and passengers should plan accordingly to ensure that no one is on road by the top of the hour, the same with bus park management.

We will not arrest anyone before 8pm. However, when time clocks, be it the driver or passenger in vehicle, bus stations or in parks, those on foot or motorcycle, bicycle will be stopped on the road, taken to provided centres and penalized accordingly. Bus parks or vehicles are not accommodations for violators.”

He advised transporters to issue tickets calculating the time when their passengers, driver and vehicle will be at the final destination before 8pm. He equally advised passengers to plan and start their journeys early to ensure that they get to their final destinations in time.

“How do you issue a ticket or board a vehicle, for example, heading to Huye from Nyabugogo at 6pm, knowing that you will not arrive in time, putting into consideration that some passengers will also have to commute from drop points to their respective destinations? It comes back to early planning by both transporters and passengers.”

On December 24, due to thick congestion in Nyabugogo bus terminal, concerned institutions devised measures including establishing new boarding and arrival venues to deal with the issue of congestion and to ensure COVID-19 prevention guidelines, such as physical distancing, are adhered to.

CP Kabera explained that this was a “one day advisory” calling upon the general public to plan their schedules accordingly, understanding the length of their journey, and to take trips that allows them to reach to their final destination by 8pm.

It is the second time Rwanda records four Coronavirus deaths in one day.

The deceased include two respectively men aged 78, 68 and a woman aged 84 from Kigali as well as a 48-year old man from Gicumbi district.

The statement released last night shows that new 107 cases have been found out of 2913 sample tests while no recovery case has been recorded.

New cases have been found in Kigali: 40, Kayonza: 17, Gakenke: 12, Musanze: 12, Huye: 8, Rubavu: 8, Gicumbi: 5, Burera: 2, Rusizi: 1, Kamonyi: 1 and Nyagatare: 1.
Rwanda confirmed the first COVID-19 patient on 14th March 2020.

Since then, 8128 people have been tested positive out of 722, 395 sample tests of whom 6339 have recovered, 1710 are active cases while 79 have succumbed to the virus.

Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) yesterday revealed that the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients is on the rise with over 40 on ventilators to help them breathe.

The country has been recording increased new cases and deaths for the past three months comparatively to the previous period. According to RBC, the number of new infections has almost tripled over the past three months.

Following the gradually up surging COVID-19 new cases the cabinet meeting of 14th December 2020 set new stringent measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

These include reduced curfew hours while all social gatherings including wedding ceremonies and celebrations of all kinds were prohibited both in public and private settings.

During festive seasons, movements are prohibited from 8 PM to 4 AM effective from December 22nd – 4th January.

Speaking about the campaign, MTN’s Senior Manager for Customer Experience, Rosine Dusabe said that this campaign is aimed at delivering superior experiences to customers.

“Through this campaign, our customers will see a series of initiatives highlighted, along the lines of convenience, self-service, speed, accessibility and security, thus making ‘Big, Quick or Convenient Tings happen, everywhere you go’.”

The campaign will involve innovative and fresh initiatives to make it easier for customers to get things done while creating personalised experiences that meet each customer’s unique preferences. Digital Apps such as the recently revamped MyMTN and MoMo Apps will also put customers in-control of their spend and usage, while saving them time.

MTN has over this last year implemented various initiatives aimed at providing customers with a distinct customer experience across all MTN touch points.

Customers can now self-serve by dialling *456# thereby accessing all MTN products and services through one short code. Customers can also do their own MoMo PIN Reset and retrieve their PUK code (Personal Unblocking Key) to unblock their SIM cards. A 10-day transaction history on Airtime and MoMo is now also available through the MyMTN and MoMo Apps respectively. Further still, the process of SIM registration and SIM Swap have been enhanced to now take under 3 minutes to complete.

For MTN Agents, similar self-serve channels have been rolled out, allowing them to re-stock on airtime through Mobile Money and to also get airtime stock on credit, paying back later.

Digital support channels have been boosted so MTN Customer Care Agents are more efficient in responding to customer queries. Support is available via WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Emails as well as calling the Call Centre toll-free line 100. Further expansion on the Call Centre is also planned.

“The customer has evolved, and their expectations have changed. We have redesigned our most frequent customer journeys to make them more user friendly. We also want to empower customers by providing self-service options using technology like bots and other predictive models to be able to be more agile in meeting their needs” added Dusabe.

These initiatives that have been put in place and those that are planned for early 2021 will enable MTN to provide the right services to customers via the right channels.

“We are on a digital transformation journey to enable us to become a true digital operator, starting from within and extending to our valued customers. We Lead Digital for a Brighter Rwanda focusing on accuracy, consistency and agility to provide the best customer experience on Rwanda’s Number 1 Network”, concluded Dusabe.

The money amounting to Rwf1,185,000 was stolen on Sunday, December 27, from the beverages shop owned by one Pelagie Nyiramana located in Munyinya trading centre.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Theobald Kanamugire, the Police spokesperson for the Southern region, said that the money was recovered from two suspected thieves identified as Christian Ntagengwa, 19, and Jules Habimana, 27.

He explained that the two suspects, on Sunday, went to Nyiramana’s depot guising as customers.

“When they entered in the depot, Ntagengwa ordered for a soda to drink but Habimana called Nyiramana out as if he wanted to ask her something. Ntagengwa remained inside,” SP Kanamugire said.

However, Nyiramana remembered that she left her bag that contained money inside the shop, where Ntagengwa was.

“When Nyiramana went back into the shop she could neither find the bag nor the money. She immediately called neighbours for help. Residents contained the two suspects, who had attempted to flee and called the Police. Officers, after listening to the victim, searched the suspects and recovered all the money in Ntagengwa’s underwear.”

According to Nyiramana, the two suspects were new, but had been roaming in the area.

The suspects hail from City of Kigali. Ntagengwa is a resident of Gikondo in Kicukiro District while Habimana hails from Remera in Gasabo District.

SP Kanamugire thanked the residents for the “spirit of neighbourhood watch” and quick response to facilitate the recovery of the money and arrest of the suspected thieves.

Ntagengwa and Habimana were handed over to RIB at Nyamabuye station.

In article 166 of the law determining offences and penalties in general, any person convicted for theft is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than one year and not more than two years and a fine of not less than Frw1 million and not more than Frw2 million, community service in a period of six (6) months or only one of these penalties.

However, in article 167, the penalty doubles if the theft was carried out by more than one person.

The country has been recording increased new cases and deaths for the past three months comparatively to the previous period. According to RBC, the number of new infections has almost tripled over the past three months.

Appearing on RTV talk show today; the Director General of RBC, Dr Sabin Nsanzimana explained that critically ill patients would not surpass 10 within one day but the current situation is alarming.

“It is true that we have critically ill patients. The number of patients on ventilators would not surpass 10 as the largest number since the pandemic emerged. As of today, we have over 40 critically ill patients who are on ventilators and attended to with emergency,” he said.

Rwanda confirmed the first COVID-19 patient on 14th March 2020. So far, 8021 people have been tested positive out of 719 482 sample tests of whom 6339 have recovered, 1607 are active cases while 75 have succumbed to the virus. New cases are nowadays found in different districts countrywide.

Dr Nsanzimana has related new cases to activities allowed to reopen and complacency against COVID-19 preventive measures.

“Of course, the increase of new patients is related to reopened activities including schools one hand. Secondly, the up surging number is driven by complacency against preventive measures among Rwandan residents. It has been observed that some people relented on some measures including proper wearing of face mask, social distancing. Thirdly, we are assessing the impact of cold weather conditions during this rainy season on spreading the disease,” he said.

Dr Nsanzimana highlighted that attendance to ceremonies for the past three months has also been among causes for increasing cases that people tended to behave as if they were in normal situation.

Following the up surging COVID-19 new cases whereby over 700 people were tested positive within 14 days while 6 succumbed to the virus in the same period, the cabinet meeting of 14th December 2020 set new stringent measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

These include reduced curfew hours while all social gatherings including wedding ceremonies and celebrations of all kinds were prohibited both in public and private settings.

During festive seasons, movements are prohibited from 8 PM to 4 AM effective from December 22nd – 4th January.

IGIHE has learnt from credible sources that these refugees in the 5th batch will land in Kigali around 9pm from where they will be tested for COVID-19 before temporary accommodation at hotels as they wait for results.

After receiving test results, they will be taken to Gashora Transit Camp located in Bugesera district where the four previous batches are accommodated.

Rwanda signed agreements to host refugees stranded in Libya on 10th September 2019 with the African Union (AU) and UNHCR.

The previous batch comprised of 79 refugees and asylum seekers arrived in Rwanda on 19th November 2020.

So far, Rwanda has received 385 refugees and asylum seekers in four batches.

Some of them have been already granted refugee status in foreign countries including 131 taken to Sweden, 23 granted refuge in Canada, 46 in Norway while 5 others were granted refuge in France.

Rwanda made the commitment to host refugees from Libya in 2017 following revelations that thousands of people from across Africa were stranded in the country after their failure to reach Europe and subjected to slavery.

Rwanda committed to receiving 500 refugees at the head first of whom a group of 66 African refugees and asylum-seekers from Libya arrived in Rwanda at the end of September 2019 in the first batch aboard the airplane of Buraq Air.

All the previous batches were all accommodated at Gashora transit camp in Bugesera district which previously hosted thousands of Burundian refugees since 2015 before they were relocated to other sites.