Author: Nicole Kamanzi Muteteri

Half of the grant (Rwf72 billion) will be provided as loans, while the rest will be provided as grants.

The World Bank has been supporting Rwanda for more than 10 years in various energy-related projects under the government’s plan to provide electricity to all Rwandans by 2024, as well as a program to promote the use of renewable energy, which will be used by ‘all Rwandans by 2030.

The money will be used to expand the Ntaruka Dam, rehabilitate power lines to reduce wasted electricity, modern lumbering programs and promote the use of renewable energy.

Rolande Pryce, the World Bank Country Manager for Rwanda, said the funding came in the right time because it was in line with the government’s plans to distribute electricity to all.

“The project has come a long way in strengthening aid that has been in place for more than 10 years and the World Bank is supporting Rwanda in its energy distribution programs. It will therefore help in the government’s plan to provide electricity to all in 2024. We are proud to be Rwanda’s partners in this program,” she said.

The World Bank already supports Rwanda in other development programs including; distribution of electricity, agriculture and education among others.

The meeting which was formerly convened by the DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi was initially planned to be held in the border town of Goma and attended physically by Heads of State of the five countries; however, a decision was reached to hold the meeting virtually in light of the Covid-19 pandemic which has, among other things, seen land borders across the region closed.

A message issued by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DRC, Marie Tumba Nzeza on Thursday, September 17, 2020, said: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DRC would like to thank the fraternal countries of Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Angola for their cooperation in conducting the study at the scheduled meeting, which resulted in the above conclusion.”

The date of the virtual meeting is yet to be set. The key issues of common interest include regional stability, security and countering terrorism.

Angola and DR Congo are also involved as mediators in restoring warm ties between Rwanda and Uganda through the Ad Hoc Commission on the Implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in Luanda in 2019.

According to the Ministry of Health, on Sunday, September 20, the country also reported 22 new cases.

Of the new cases, 14 were detected in Kigali’s high-risk groups, whereas Nyamagabe and Burera districts confirmed 7 cases and one case respectively.

The results were obtained from 1,892 sample tests taken in a single day.

In total, since the outbreak of the pandemic by mid-March, Rwanda conducted 475,931 tests.

Of all tests, the country reported 4,711 confirmed cases, of which 2,961 people have recovered.

The country’s Covid-19 death toll so far stands at 26 people.

Coronavirus symptoms include coughing, flu, and difficulty in breathing. The virus is said to be transmitted through the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract.

Rwandans are required to continue complying with government regulations, especially with frequent washing of hands and water and soap, wearing masks when leaving home or in public.

Majority of the violators were the youth, some of whom were at the time found playing football while others engaged in varied sports disciplines.

Earlier on, the group first took to the road to jog before they started playing football and other body contact sports, all of which are prohibited in this period due to the risk they pose in spreading COVID-19.

At the time, they were found with no facemasks and body contact was the norm.

The violators were enlightened on the pandemic of novel Coronavirus, government directives in this period including safety practices and were, afterwards, penalised for the violations.

The acting Western Regional Police Commander (RPC), Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Edmond Kalisa reminded them that sports activities are not prohibited but have to follow the recommended safety guidelines to prevent catching or spreading COVID-19.

“What you did today could have exposed all of you to the virus, if one of you was infected, which could as well be a danger to your respective families,” CSP Kalisa told the group of violators.

“There are allowed and prohibited sports disciplines; football, sports done in groups or those that can lead to body contacts are prohibited. You can only do any sport activity individually but not as a group,” he added.

The mayor of Rubavu, Gilbert Habyarimana warned the youth against undermining the safety directives intetionally, adding that this will not be tolerated.

When the method is to be employed, as soon the expecting mother begins to feel labor pain, she is injected with the concoction, which protects her from pain until she gives birth.

A professor at Duke University in the United States, Prof. Ayedemi John Olufolabi, explained that the process that is going to be introduced in King Faisal hospital will assuage mothers’ pain.

“A catheter helps us to inject drugs into the muscles that cause a woman to have a lot of pain to reduce it, with medical doctors in attendance.”

Dr. Muhumuza Samuel, an expert and an Anesthesiologist in King Faisal hospital, explained that the procedure was aimed at reducing the pain mothers feel due to labor.
“This approach is complementary to what we used to do to reduce the pain caused by so-called ‘spinal analgesia for labor’, but it doesn’t remove all the pain.”

“The pain a mother has during childbirth can have a devastating effect on the baby and the mother; at times, a mother fails to breastfeed or does not want to cuddle the baby ld. because of the pain she felt while giving birth.”

According to the daily update by the Ministry of Health, the two victims are a 29-year old and an 80-year old, all residents of Kigali.

“Condolences to families of two Rwandans, 80-year-old and 29-year-old, who passed away in Kigali,” the Ministry said, while 18 new cases were reported, out of 1,549 tests, taking the total number of cases in Rwanda so far to 4,671.

On the same day, the Ministry also reported 28 recoveries, taking total recoveries to 2,845, while the number of active cases is now 1,801.

Out of the new cases, nine patients were identified in Kigali, four in Nyamagabe, four in Rubavu and one in Bugesera district. So far 471,767 tests have been conducted since the first case was detected on March 14, 2020.

Coronavirus symptoms include coughing, flu, and difficulty in breathing. The virus is said to be transmitted through the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract.

Rwandans are required to continue complying with government regulations, especially with frequent washing of hands and water and soap, wearing masks when leaving home or in public.

More than 7.5million Rwandans currently have National IDs. It is an exciting step because for it has been 26 years that the Genocide against the Tutsi was stopped, and Rwandans are proud to have documents that do not contain racial discrimination.

Rwandan history shows that during the colonial era, what was once a wealthy class of Rwandans was transformed into ethnics and the colonists began to include it in Rwandan documents called “books” which later came out of the paper identity card.

In an interview with RBA, Antoine Mugesera, an expert in Rwandan culture and history, said that the “Book” consisted of about 10 pages.

“It was a little booklet, they called it a book. They used the book to segregate indegenous Rwandans from the twenty families, the Singas, the Zigabas, the Geseras among others,” he said.

The identity card was widely used in the Genocide against the Tutsi, where at various barriers they were set up, the Interahamwe asked for it looking for who to kill.

Mugesera says that in the aftermath of the Genocide against the Tutsi, things have changed and ethnicity has been removed from identity cards.

“I was one of the founders of the project, I was raised by the commission that issued it in 1995/96; Arusha had confirmed that the identities containing the so-called ethnicities would be removed, and that Habyarimana wanted to do so and changed his mind. It was not an easy thing to do for him”.

A 16-year-old Rwandan is currently allowed to obtain an identity card, as a proof of identity.

Mukesha Josephine, director general of the National Identification Agency, said the study of identity thesis was in line with modern technology.

“There is a program called ‘digital ID’ which means that you still have your physical ID, and can present it to access your digital information. You can even place your signature on it and there are no gaps allowing for it to be used by another person,,” she said.

In 2016, the agency announced that the digital ID would be combined with up to seven other documents including identity card itself, driver’s license, RSSB number, insurance, tin number and family members among others. It will cost Rwf15,000.

Currently, 7,586,813 Rwandans have IDs, of which about four women.

On the other hand, the RAT rate is cheaper, as one can cost between Rwf969 and Rwf4 844 Frw, making it easier to use in crowded places such as markets, car parks and many other places where PCR testing is not feasible.

COVID-19 TasK Force coordinator, Dr. Menelas Nkeshimana said that it is not possible to test everyone by PCR alone.

“There is no doubt that all people will be tested for COVID-19 when the RAT is adopted, which we have started to use, and most people in the country will be tested even if it is weekly because the price of the test will be reduced.” He said

The RAT test is easy to use because one can test themselves and get results in a short period of time. It is a test that provides reliable results at a rate of 80%.

On March 20 the Government of Rwanda suspended all flights to and from the country, in response to the COVID-19; a decision that coincided with the closure of the borders of many countries due to the pandemic.

Nearly six months later, RwandAir, through their social media platform, has announced it was resuming flights to the UK.

“We’re happy to announce the resumption of our services to London with 2 weekly flights from Kigali to Heathrow from 3rd Oct.”