IGIHE

Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

  • Tanzania:RC orders demolition of houses on flood prone areas in Dar

    {Dar Es Salaam Regional Commissioner (RC) Paul Makonda yesterday ordered immediate demolition of all houses built in the flood prone areas.}

    He directed Ilala Municipal Council Director, Ilala District Commissioner and Ilala Administrative Secretary (DAS) to ensure all houses in the condemned areas are pulled down by today for the safety of their occupants.

    “All the 36 houses that we had planned to demolish at Msimbazi flood prone area especially during this rain season, should be pulled down by tomorrow (today). I directed all residents who had already been compensated to immediately quit the area before their houses are demolished,” directed RC Makonda.

    He issued the order yesterHe issued the order yesterHe issued the order yester day while on a tour of Msimbazi River in Mnyamani ward to inspect the areas affected by floods due to ongoing rains in the city.

    Mr Makonda also urged all residents who had not been paid compensation to go to Ilala Director and those who had already received their cheques to immediately leave the Msimbazi flood plain.

    He called on Dar es Salaam residents to be on the frontline in ensuring that their houses are not built at risky areas that may lead to deaths and other losses of property.

    “I advise you (residents of Msimbazi valley) to leave this area to save your own lives. We advise you to support the government efforts to ensure all people are living in safe areas and decent houses,” he explained.

    The RC said that the notice to demolish all houses built in flood plains areas was issued by the government long time ago, with the aim of protecting people’s lives.

    He warned residents who have received compensation and are still putting up at the areas, saying they were acting against the law. Mr Makonda said that due to ongoing rains in the city, Dar es Salaam residents should take precautions themselves instead of waiting for the government to take care of them as victims.

    He said by next month, all houses built on flood prone areas in the city, especially along Msimbazi valley, will be already demolished and all deserving evictees compensated.

    Source:Daily News

  • Police operations arrest six drug dealers

    {Six suspected drug dealers including three women were arrested on Monday in two separate operations conducted in Nyarugenge and Kirehe districts as Rwanda National Police (RNP) maintains its pace in breaking the chain of supply.}

    Police spokesperson for the City of Kigali, Supt. Emmanuel Hitayezu identified those arrested red-handed in Nyarugenge as Latifa Nyirayuwera, Roussa Akingeneye, Annociate Mukeshimana, Francois Ngendahimana, and Martin Munyensanga.

    They are all currently detained at Nyarugenge Police Station pending further investigations

    The other suspect identified as Matayo Kubwimana was arrested in Curazo Cell, Gatore Sector in Kirehe with about 20 kilogrammes of cannabis.

    Supt. Hitayezu said: “On Monday evening, the District Police Unit of Nyarugenge received a phone call from a resident of Umucyo Village in Akabahizi Cell, Gitega Sector reporting a ring of drug dealers in the area. When officers arrived at about 5:30pm, they caught the suspects with 1625 pellets of cannabis.”

    Mukeshimana, who was at the time caught with 381 pellets of cannabis , told the police that one Ramadan Mpuyenabo, who is still in hiding, was their supplier.

    “The campaign and operations against drug abuse are mainly geared towards breaking the chain of supply. The best part in this fight is that the public have owned it and they are the main source of information on suppliers in their communities, which is a big step forward,” Supt. Hitayezu said.

    Meanwhile, in Kirehe, Kubwimana, who is collaborating with the police in investigations, said he was delivering the narcotics to one Reuelie Mporwiki also of Gatore.

    Kubwimana has since disclosed names of other people he says are involved into trafficking of the narcotics.

    According to Police, although drug related crimes are on decline, partly due to vigorous community policing measures adopted, there’s increased involvement of women compared to the past.

    On Monday, two women were also arrested in Kicukiro District with about 120kgs of cannabis.

    On several occasion, women have been arrested transporting cannabis in pumpkins carrying them at the back guising as babies and concealing them in veils.

    According to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Nadine Umutoni Gatsinzi, women are custodians of values, which they should strive for.

    “First, dealing in narcotic drugs is criminal. It’s a crime that causes insecurity to societies, destroys families and affect behaviors of children,” the PS said.

    “But as women, we are also the heart of the family and the country in general, and we play a vital role in passing good values and proper upbringing of children. A woman should stand for such values, maintain their dignity, and join police efforts in fighting the dealers to save our children and the future leaders,” she said.

    Source:Police

  • Scientists predict crime knowledge states in the human brain

    {Judges and juries always ponder whether people act “knowingly” or “recklessly” during criminal activity — and neuroscience has had little to add to the conversation.}

    But now, researchers, including computational neuroscientist Read Montague of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, have discovered that brain imaging can determine whether someone is acting in a state of knowledge about a crime — which brings about stiffer penalties — or a state of recklessness, which even in capital crimes such as homicide, calls for less severe sentences.

    The discovery, scheduled for publication this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will not have a bearing on court proceedings, but it is an inroad in the emerging field of “neurolaw,” which connects neuroscience to legal rules and standards.

    In a brain imaging study of 40 people, researchers identified brain responses that indicated whether people knew they were committing crimes or if they were instead acting recklessly with the risk that they might be committing a crime.

    The researchers provided the first neurobiological evidence of a detectable difference between the mental states of knowledge and recklessness, an exploration that historically has been confined to the courtroom.

    “People can commit exactly the same crime in all of its elements and circumstances, and depending on their mental states, the difference could be one would go to jail for 14 years and the other would get probation,” said Montague, who is the Virginia Tech Carilion Vernon Mountcastle Research Professor and director of the research institute’s Human Neuroimaging Laboratory. “Predicated on which side of the boundary you are on between acting knowingly and recklessly, you can differentially be deprived of your freedom.”

    The research was conceived under the direction of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience at Vanderbilt University and carried out by researchers at Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and Yale University.

    Scientists scanned the brains of 40 subjects and asked them to decide whether to carry a suitcase across the border, varying the probability that the suitcase contained drugs.

    Using noninvasive functional brain imaging and machine-learning techniques, in which a computer learns to find patterns in data, the scientists accurately determined whether the research subjects knew drugs were in the case, which would make them guilty of knowingly importing drugs, or whether they were uncertain about it, which would make them innocent.

    The researchers showed that knowing and reckless mental states corresponded to detectable neurological states, and that those mental states can be predicted based on brain imaging data alone.

    The researchers cautioned that the assessment of the mental state of a defendant should not be reduced to the classification of brain data.

    “In principle, we are showing these brain states can be detected when the activity is taking place,” Montague said. “Given that, we can start asking questions like, which neural circuits are engaged by this? What does the distribution look like across 4,000 people instead of 40 people? Are there conditions of either development, states of mind, use of pharmacological substances, or incurred injuries that impinge on these networks in ways that would inform the punishment?”

    The study was informed by a judge and researchers at Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, the University of Kentucky, and the Ohio State University.

    “Scientists and lawyers speak different languages,” Montague said. “A translation goes on when you bring these groups together that gives new meaning to interdisciplinary. Lawyers think of people as being conscious and deliberative, and the law sees people that way — you are an independent agent and you make choices for yourself. That picture ignores the scientific fact that 99 percent of the decisions made in your nervous system never make their way to consciousness. You are being driven by things to which you don’t even have conscious access — that difference was something we had to work through to design the experiment.”

    In a brain imaging study of 40 people, researchers identified brain responses that indicated whether people knew they were committing crimes or if they were instead acting recklessly with the risk that they might be committing a crime.

    Source:Science Daily

  • Bugesera motorcyclists intercept stolen motorcycle

    {Commercial motorcyclists in Bugesera District, on Monday, intercepted a motorcycle reportedly stolen over the weekend in the City of Kigali.}

    The motorcycle TVS registration number RD 899G was intercepted on March 13 in Nyamata Sector from the suspected thief identified as Syldio Minani, 33, who has since been arrested by the Police.

    Inspector of Police (IP) Emmanuel Kayigi, police spokesperson for the Eastern Province, said that Minani was reported by the motorcyclists after they were also contacted by the would-be buyer, who got suspicious in the process.

    “The DPU of Bugesera, like other DPUs, was informed of the missing motorcycle which was reportedly stolen on March 11. The would-be buyer got suspicious and tried to ask motorcyclists in Nyamata town, who in turn informed the police especially that they had been informed about the theft and had particulars of the bike,” said IP Kayigi.

    “The suspect was arrested red-handed and he turned up with the stolen motorcycle to collect the money, and the motorcycle recovered,” he added.

    The motorcycle has since been handed over the owner.

    IP Kayigi commended the vigilance of the would-be buyer for taking a bold step to verify before buying a motorcycle he didn’t know its status, and lauded the partnership between the police and motorcyclists in particular, which he said is vital in crime detection and prevention.

    Recently, motorcyclists in Bugesera also intercepted two motorcycles that had been stolen in Kigali and Gicumbi District.

    Inspector of Police (IP) Emmanuel Kayigi, police spokesperson for the Eastern Province.

    Source:Police

  • Buzzing the brain with electricity can boost working memory

    {Scientists have uncovered a method for improving short-term working memory, by stimulating the brain with electricity to synchronise brain waves.}

    Researchers at Imperial College London found that applying a low voltage current can bring different areas of the brain in sync with one another, enabling people to perform better on tasks involving working memory.

    The hope is that the approach could one day be used to bypass damaged areas of the brain and relay signals in people with traumatic brain injury, stroke or epilepsy.

    The brain is in constant state of chatter, with this activity seen as brainwaves oscillating at different frequencies and different regions keeping a steady ‘beat’.

    In a small study, published today in the journal eLife, the Imperial team found that applying a weak electrical current through the scalp helped to align different parts of the brain, synchronising their brain waves and enabling them to keep the same beat.

    “What we observed is that people performed better when the two waves had the same rhythm and at the same time,” said Dr Ines Ribeiro Violante, a neuroscientist in the Department of Medicine at Imperial, who led the research.

    In the trial, carried out in collaboration with University College London, the team used a technique called transcranial alternating current stimulation (TACS) to manipulate the brain’s regular rhythm.

    They found that buzzing the brain with electricity could give a performance boost to the same memory processes used when people try to remember names at a party, telephone numbers, or even a short grocery list.

    Dr Violante and team used TCAS to target two brain regions — the middle frontal gyrus and the inferior parietal lobule — which are known to be involved in working memory.

    Ten volunteers were asked to carry out a set of memory tasks of increasing difficulty while receiving theta frequency stimulation to the two brain regions at slightly different times (unsynchronised), at the same time (synchronous), or only a quick burst (sham) to give the impression of receiving full treatment.

    In the working memory experiments, participants looked at a screen on which numbers flashed up and had to remember if a number was the same as the previous, or in the case of the harder trial, if it the current number matched that of two-numbers previous.

    Results showed that when the brain regions were stimulated in sync, reaction times on the memory tasks improved, especially on the harder of the tasks requiring volunteers to hold two strings of numbers in their minds.

    “The classic behaviour is to do slower on the harder cognitive task, but people performed faster with synchronised stimulation and as fast as on the simpler task,” said Dr Violante.

    Previous studies have shown that brain stimulation with electromagnetic waves or electrical current can have an effect on brain activity, the field has remained controversial due to a lack of reproducibility.

    But using functional MRI to image the brain enabled the team to show changes in activity occurring during stimulation, with the electrical current potentially modulating the flow of information.

    “We can use TACS to manipulate the activity of key brain networks and we can see what’s happening with fMRI,” explained Dr Violante.

    “The results show that when the stimulation was in sync, there was an increase in activity in those regions involved in the task. When it was out of sync the opposite effect was seen.”

    However, one of the major hurdles for making such a treatment widely available is the individual nature of people’s brains. Not only do the electrodes have to get the right frequency, but target it to the right part of the brain and get the beat in time.

    Dr Violante added: “We use a very cheap technique, and that’s one of the advantages we hope it will bring if it’s translatable to the clinic.

    “The next step is to see if the brain stimulation works in patients with brain injury, in combination with brain imaging, where patients have lesions which impair long range communication in their brains.

    “The hope is that it could eventually be used for these patients, or even those who have suffered a stroke or who have epilepsy.”

    Professor David Sharp, a neurologist in Imperial’s Department of Medicine and senior author on the paper, added: “We are very excited about the potential of brain stimulation to treat patients. I work with patients who often have major problems with working memory after their head injuries, so it would be great to have a way to enhance our current treatments, which may not always work for them.

    “Our next step is to try the approach out in our patients and we will see whether combining it with cognitive training can restore lost skills.”

    The scans show that stimulation 'in beat' increases brain activity in the regions involved in task performance. On the other hand, stimulation 'out of beat' showed activity in regions usually associated with resting.

    Source:Science Daily

  • Gakenke: DPC urges CPCs on stronger partnership in crime prevention

    {The District Police Commander of Gakenke, Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Jean Bosco Minani has called upon members of community policing committees in the district to strengthen their effort in community policing activities and reinforce crime prevention efforts.}

    The DPC made the call during a meeting with about 90 members of CPCs of Mataba Sector. CPCs also double as grassroots leaders at the village and cell levels.

    He observed that security is one of the key pillars in fostering national and individual development, which they should strive for.

    CIP Minani said noted that the role of CPCs in safety and security can’t be over emphasized, but added that without involving and working with the residents creates a gap that criminals like thieves and drug dealers seized to destabilize the wellbeing of the people.

    “When you are in your communities, as police, we feel we are well represented; you are the eyes and ears of safety and security. Whenever you suspect anything that could cause insecurity, you should provide information as fast as possible,” the DPC said.

    He noted that detecting, fighting and preventing a crime depends on strong collaboration, cooperation and real time information sharing between the people, leaders and security organs.

    The meeting was also attended by the executive secretary of Mataba, Isaie Mbonyinshuti.

    Source:Police

  • Did humans create the Sahara desert?

    {New research challenges the idea that changes in the Earth’s orbit triggered Sahara desertification.}

    New research investigating the transition of the Sahara from a lush, green landscape 10,000 years ago to the arid conditions found today, suggests that humans may have played an active role in its desertification.

    The desertification of the Sahara has long been a target for scientists trying to understand climate and ecological tipping points. A new paper published in Frontiers in Earth Science by archeologist Dr. David Wright, from Seoul National University, challenges the conclusions of most studies done to date that point to changes in the Earth’s orbit or natural changes in vegetation as the major driving forces.

    “In East Asia there are long established theories of how Neolithic populations changed the landscape so profoundly that monsoons stopped penetrating so far inland,” explains Wright, also noting in his paper that evidence of human-driven ecological and climatic change has been documented in Europe, North America and New Zealand. Wright believed that similar scenarios could also apply to the Sahara.

    To test his hypothesis, Wright reviewed archaeological evidence documenting the first appearances of pastoralism across the Saharan region, and compared this with records showing the spread of scrub vegetation, an indicator of an ecological shift towards desert-like conditions. The findings confirmed his thoughts; beginning approximately 8,000 years ago in the regions surrounding the Nile River, pastoral communities began to appear and spread westward, in each case at the same time as an increase in scrub vegetation.

    Growing agricultural addiction had a severe effect on the region’s ecology. As more vegetation was removed by the introduction of livestock, it increased the albedo (the amount of sunlight that reflects off the earth’s surface) of the land, which in turn influenced atmospheric conditions sufficiently to reduce monsoon rainfall. The weakening monsoons caused further desertification and vegetation loss, promoting a feedback loop which eventually spread over the entirety of the modern Sahara.

    There is much work still to do to fill in the gaps, but Wright believes that a wealth of information lies hidden beneath the surface: “There were lakes everywhere in the Sahara at this time, and they will have the records of the changing vegetation. We need to drill down into these former lake beds to get the vegetation records, look at the archaeology, and see what people were doing there. It is very difficult to model the effect of vegetation on climate systems. It is our job as archaeologists and ecologists to go out and get the data, to help to make more sophisticated models.”

    Despite taking place several thousands of years ago, the implications of humans being responsible for environmental and climatic degradation are easy to see. With approximately 15% of the world’s population living in desert regions, Wright stresses the importance of his findings: “the implications for how we change ecological systems have a direct impact on whether humans will be able to survive indefinitely in arid environments.”

    Dunes of the Sahara Desert.

    Source:Science Daily

  • Growing isolation of poor helps explain changes in concentrated poverty

    {Concentrated poverty — neighborhoods where 40 percent of the population or more lives below the federal poverty level — is back on the rise for all races in the United States, according to Penn State demographers.}

    Growing residential separation and isolation of the poor in American metropolitan areas, as well as overall increases in poverty since the early 2000s, explain most of the change in concentrated poverty, they added.

    In the 1980s, concentrated poverty rose, but eased in the 1990s. However, the latest figures suggest that a rise in concentrated poverty has returned, according to John Iceland, professor of sociology and demography and research associate in the Population Research Institute.

    “I personally was curious about this volatility — what explains it? Why did we see this increase in the 1980s and the decline in the 1990s and why has it been rebounding?” said Iceland. “As a social demographer, I’m particularly interested in the changing composition of people living in certain neighborhoods and what types of broad population processes help explain the general trend.”

    Although the country has seen shifts in poverty concentration before, there is a recent change in the locations of poverty concentrations, according to the researchers.

    “The composition of people living in high-poverty neighborhoods and their locations has changed,” said Iceland. “It used to be thought of as black, inner-city poverty, but now more Hispanics and a higher proportion of whites are living in high-poverty neighborhoods. They are less likely to be just in the inner core of cities, but oftentimes in inner suburbs.”

    Overall poverty is different from poverty concentration, although they could be related, said Iceland, who worked with Erik Hernandez, a graduate student in sociology and demography.

    “We do look at how the changes of overall poverty affect the concentration of poverty, because those are two distinct concepts,” Iceland said. “There could be a certain percentage of the population in a country that is poor, but what the concentration of poverty looks at is to what extent are they concentrated in relatively few neighborhoods.”

    In this study, poverty concentrations followed trends in overall poverty, according to the researchers, who report their findings in a recent issue of Social Science Research. The country’s recent poor economic performance, such as the deep recession of 2006-2008, has affected individual poverty, neighborhood poverty and the percentage of all people and all poor people living in high poverty neighborhoods, the researchers said.

    In the 2000s about 20.5 percent of poor blacks were living in a high-poverty neighborhood. Between 2010 and 2014, that figure was up to 23.1 percent. The percentage of poor non-Hispanic whites living in high-poverty neighborhoods in the 2000s was approximately 5.8 percent, which went up to 8.2 percent between 2010 and 2014. The total of poor Americans living in high-poverty neighborhoods went from 11.4 percent in the 2000s to 14.1 percent in the latest numbers.

    According to the researchers, an increase in the concentration of poverty could affect government services, such as health, police and education. The trend could also have an impact on job opportunities.

    “A lot of resources are tied to neighborhoods — the quality of schooling and the amount of a school’s economic resources vary across neighborhoods, for example,” said Iceland. “People have talked about how there’s more crime and social disorganization in places with high poverty levels. And this all has consequences for quality of life.”

    The researchers used data from the U.S. Census Bureau that cover 1980 to 2000 and information from the 2000-2014 American Community Survey.

    In the 1980s, concentrated poverty rose, but eased in the 1990s. However, the latest figures suggest that a rise in concentrated poverty has returned.

    Source:Science Daily

  • Old voters’ cards to be used in August presidential elections

    {The National Electoral Commission has said it will not issue new voters’ cards during the upcoming presidential elections but voters will use the ones they obtained during local leaders elections last year. }

    This has been unveiled today during a NEC partners’ meeting for fast-tracking the progress of preparations in the forthcoming presidential elections in August 2017.

    “Voters will use cards issued to them in 2016.That is why we request everyone to keep it well,” said the NEC executive secretary, Charles Munyaneza.

    He explained that 500,000 new voters will receive get cards.

    Munyaneza said that those who lost cards won’t be affected because they are registered in a digital register adding that they are collaborating with local leaders to to facilitate people with disabilities to participate in elections.

    Munyaneza has explained that elections preparations stand at 80% while 6.8 million people have been entered in the voters’ register which will be finally revised in May 2017.

    Presidential elections are scheduled on 3rd August 2017 for Rwandans in diaspora and 4th August 2017 for Rwandans inside the country.

    NEC executive secretary, Charles Munyaneza.

  • Incoherency in foreign languages distorts genocide explanations

    {Members of Parliament have raised issues that contribute to the distortion of Rwanda’s history and genocide against Tutsi especially at Gisozi where some employees at Kigali Gneocide Memorial Center have poor command of foreign languages, making it hard to provide distinct and clear explanations to visitors. }

    MP Mutimura Zeno has raised the issue today as the parliament received a report of the Committee on Unity, Human Rights and fight against Genocide focusing on the analysis of the report of CNLG activities in 2015/2016 and 2016-2017 plans.

    He said that two serious challenges at Gisozi memorial are related to distorting history.

    “The first is untruthful historical facts at the memorial. For instance saying the ten commandments of Hutu were written by André Perraudin is not true. They were written by Gitera. We have clarified this several times but it has never been corrected,” said MP Mutimura.

    “The other serious problem is inadequate command in foreign languages. When you receive foreign guests, you have to be fluent in their language and provide clear explanations,” he added.

    MP Mutimura pointed out an example where he recently accompanied Deutsch, Netherlands and Kenyan visitors but found employees’ explanations in English so much wanting.

    “I neither know what is lacking to train employees in languages nor do I know how the situation is in the French language. There is no problem with Kinyarwanda but there are serious problems in providing explanations in English,” he said.

    Mutimura explained that they have discussed the matter with the organization in charge of fighting against genocide crimes and AEGIS TRUST but nothing has been done.