Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

Asamoah Gyan deemed to have ‘unethical hair’ in United Arab Emirates

{Former Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan is among a group of more than 40 players deemed to have “unethical hair” under United Arab Emirates Football Association (UAEFA) guidelines.}

The 31-year-old Ghanaian is on loan at Dubai-based Arabian Gulf League side Al Ahli from Shanghai SIPG.

Some Islamic teachings ban ‘Qaza’ hairstyles, where only part of the head is shaved.

Individual match referees judge whether players’ haircuts are appropriate.

Some match officials in the United Arab Emirates enforce the rules because they are concerned about children copying the styles.

Similar guidelines have been enforced in neighbouring countries. In 2012, Saudi Arabia goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah was told to cut his “un-Islamic” hair by the referee before playing for his club side Al Shabab.

The UAEFA sends a player’s club a warning letter in the first instance, with punishments escalating to a fine and then a suspension if he does not comply.

Gyan is one of 46 players at the warning letter stage.

According to Middle Eastern football website Ahdaaf, Al Wahda’s Suhail Al-Mansoori (pictured below) was told to cut his hair while UAE international and 2016 Asian footballer of the year Omar Abdulrahman, who sports a similar style and also plays in the Arabian Gulf League, was let off.

Source:BBC

February 16, 2017
At least 8 hurt, many held in police raid on oulawed DRC group

{Kinshasa – Eight suspected members of an outlawed political-religious group were critically injured and 22 arrested in clashes with police in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) capital, police sources said on Tuesday.}

Violence erupted late Monday and continued into Tuesday when police stormed a house believed to harbour members of the Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) movement.

BDK stands for “Kingdom of the Kongo” in the Kikongo language and members, known as the Makessa, are hostile to the police as symbols of the vast central African state’s authority.

“Twenty-two people were arrested including eight who were critically injured,” said police spokesperson Pierre Rombaut Mwanamputu.

He said two cars were torched by BDK members and that police recovered six automatic rifles.

The movement, concentrated in the southwest, seeks the restoration of the former Congolese kingdom inside pre-colonial boundaries, which would comprise parts of Angola, Congo and Gabon.

Police and other witnesses told AFP shots could be heard near the residence of BDK’s spiritual leader Ne Muanda Nsemi, which was cordoned off by police.

Nsemi, a member of parliament in Kinshasa who has never been arrested, was not found.

In videos recently posted online, Nsemi called for an insurrection against President Joseph Kabila.

“In two weeks, I will strike,” he says in one video posted a few days ago.

The government has accused BDK followers of a string of violent attacks in western DRC since January.

The government says violent clashes between the group and police killed 27 people in 2008, while UN and civilian sources put the death toll at nearer 100.

Source:AFP

February 16, 2017
African Development Bank to finance Igad integration project

{The African Development Bank has agreed to finance an integration project meant to open up borders, to the tune of Sh350 million.}

On Wednesday, the AfDB announced a grant of $3.5 million to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) for the project scheduled to run for the next three years.

Known as the Infrastructure Master Plan, the project will see Igad’s eight-member countries benefit in the designing of transboundary facilities that the bloc sees as important for regional integration.

The members include Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Somalia and Eritrea. Formed in 1986 initially to tackle effects of drought, the bloc grew both in size and mandate to be a forum for discussing other development issues such as cross-border trade, energy, transportation and migration.

But the regional bloc has suffered financial difficulties in implementing its projects, despite having very proficient plans on paper.

AfDB said this money has been given through its concessional window and will help Igad to come up with priority areas to develop in the region in order to promote further trade, movement of goods and persons and poverty alleviation.

“It will define priority regional infrastructure transport, energy, ICT and transboundary water projects for investment, to spur a broader positive socio-economic development impact,” AfDB said in a statement.

“These would include physical and economic integration; job creation; enhanced opportunities for women (particularly in easing cross-border trade); increased business opportunities; improved access to infrastructure services; and generally improved the quality of life of the majority of the population in the Igad region.”

Igad has not given specifics on which countries or particular projects it will start with. But the Plan is part of its ‘Minimum Integration Plan/Road Map’ adopted in 2010 to promote free trade in the region.

“In general, the governments, people, institutions, and economies of the eight Igad member States will benefit directly from the project.

“Specifically, businesses, traders, households, investors as well as development partners and international bilateral and multilateral agencies will also benefit from well-planned coordinated regional infrastructure projects and services that would enhance more efficient movement trade and economic development,” the Bank added.

Set to last 38 months, the total project could cost $3.69 million, according to the AfDB Igad will have to raise the balance of $0.19 million, meaning either member states or other donors will have to fill the gap.

Source:Daily Nation

February 16, 2017
‘EAC Transport corridors vital’

{As the East Africa region grows fast in Africa, policies to promote transformation of transport to economic corridors should be put in place to facilitate more dynamic movements of people, goods, services and money.}

Presenting the working paper on ‘Dynamism and Future prospects of Economic Corridors in the East African Region’, Chairperson for DAIMA Associates Limited, Prof Samuel Wangwe, said in the recent years new economic movements have emerged. “Growth poles which are an agglomeration of production, logistics and consumption centres have also emerged.

Those growth poles have been connected more deeply through transport corridors and by so doing those corridors have been transformed from simple transport corridors to economic corridors,” he noted. He said planning the corridor development and its surrounding area can maximise development benefits through engagement of public-private partnership for sustainability.

DAIMA Chairperson said prioritising economic potential available in transportation corridors should be given priority by creating friendly business and trade policies.

Expounding further he said through absorbing energies from Indian and Arabic world across the Indian Ocean, the region has witnessed more dynamic movements of people, goods, service and money along the economic corridors. As the corridor will not grow without doing anything, he said developing master plan to study them and growth poles was important.

The plan will assist in implementation of projects and executing the transformation of process. Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Senior Representative, Mr Amatsu Kuniaki, said they commissioned DAIMA Associates to produce the working paper with interest in looking at the new features of those transformations in the EAC region.

“EAC regional integration would inject dynamism into the EAC economies through economies of scale and more efficient deployment of factors of production,” he noted.

Mr Kuniaki said it was also important to develop the East Coast of the region by developing the ports of Lamu, Mombasa, Bagamoyo, Dar es Salaam and Mtwara,” he said. He added that by developing new industrial complexes as in Tanzania’s Bagamoyo and Mtwara special economic zones.

Source:Daily News

February 16, 2017
Two Chinese women stabbed to death in Uganda

{Detectives on Wednesday began investigating the deaths of two Chinese nationals in the Kampala suburb of Kikoni, west of Makerere University, and the Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura said they are treating the cases as murder.}

Murder is defined in the Penal Code Act as the offence of an intentional killing of a person with “malice aforethought”.

Decomposing bodies of the yet unidentified women were discovered in a rented house on Wednesday morning. Each bore a stab wound, according to Gen Kayihura, who visited the building that investigators have tapped off as a crime scene.

Police say it is likely the victims were killed on the weekend or earlier.

The structure was previously used as a church until last week when another Chinese national, who detectives say they are treating as a suspect, rented it. His whereabouts are unknown.

The landlord informed Flying Squad and Scene of Crime Officers that he does not know the name of the missing tenant.

Residents of the slum neighbourhood huddled at the crime scene, some craning their necks over the fence, to catch a glimpse of preliminary police action. Many spoke in hushed tones.

Officials from the Chinese Embassy visited the scene amid expectation by detectives that his association could provide useful information to assist in the ongoing investigations and identifying the said tenant.

Source:Daily Monitor

February 16, 2017
Kenya:Jubilee to splash out trillions in push for pet projects in election year budget

{The spending plan for the financial year starting in July has the hallmarks of an election budget, in which Jubilee splashes out billions of shillings on projects to fulfil its campaign pledges.}

The government proposes to spend Sh2.62 trillion with significant expenditure on roads and infrastructure, energy as well as security and education amid goodies for the grassroots.

Key government pet projects — such as the standard gauge railway, the laptop for schools programmes and electricity distribution — enjoy huge allocations in the estimates released on Wednesday.

Apart from the 5.3 per cent drop in the allocation for development compared to last year, infrastructure, transport and logistics — including ongoing road constructions, the SGR, modernisation of ports, energy and housing — got the lion’s share of the budget, at Sh284.87 billion.

The new railway alone will take Sh75 billion with Sh9.7 billion set aside to finance the Last Mile Connectivity project. There is also a Sh3 billion for buying transformers in constituencies, Sh1.53 billion for solar lanterns and a Sh1.3 billion connectivity subsidy in a bid to deepen electricity connection in homes and public places.

Also targeted in a big way is the education sector with the laptop programme taking Sh13.4 billion out of the Sh169.8 billion targeting recruitment of more teachers, upgrading of national schools as well as funding universities.

{{Examination fee waiver }}

An examination fee waiver, another popular proposal, has been allocated Sh4 billion.

Security is expected to take up Sh57.7 billion as plans to lease more police cars as well as enhanced security operations and border security get priority in an election year. Modernisation of the police and the military will cost Sh25.6 billion.

However, the estimates, presented by National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, show that Kenya will be borrow to bridge a Sh582.5 billion deficit between the projected revenues and the planned expenditure.

The target for tax revenues, set at Sh1.3 trillion last year, has been adjusted upwards to Sh1.5 trillion in a move that will see the taxman raid more pockets to fund the budget.

Mr Rotich said the raising of the revenue projections was anchored on tax reforms.

“This performance will be underpinned by ongoing reforms in tax policy and revenue administration, through automation and inter agency-collaboration and connectivity,” Mr Rotich wrote in the estimates.

He added: “The government will also complete the review of the income tax law so as to modernise it and align it to international practice.”
The budget also allocates Sh100 billion to a salary increment for all civil servants from July 1.

The government also set aside Sh7.3 billion for the ongoing irrigation projects countrywide, as well as towards helping to transform agriculture from subsistence to productive commercial farming.

The biggest allocation here will be Sh5 billion for input subsidy — including fertilisers and seeds — as well as some Sh1.6 billion for title deeds and Sh1 billion for the crop diversification for miraa (khat) farmers.

{{Tourism recovery }}

Kenya hopes that the economy, which experienced a drop to 5.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 from the 6.2 and 5.9 per cent in the second and first quarters, respectively, will grow at 5.9 per cent in 2017.

Agriculture and tourism recovery and the completion of roads and rail projects are expected to be the key anchors.
Increased from Sh2.48 trillion.

According to the proposed budget, which increased from the Sh2.48 trillion in the 2016/2017 financial year, the budgetary deficit has been pushed up by a one-off allocation for the SGR, without which it would been Sh469.6 billion.

The government will fill the gap by borrowing Sh206 billion from the external market and Sh328 billion from the local market.

The CS defended Kenya’s debt position and said the debt load will be reduced gradually in subsequent budgets.

The government has also allocated Sh640 million to help complete economic stimulus projects started in last year’s budget, including expansion of markets.

Apart from Parliament getting Sh38 billion for modernisation, CDF will make a return through the National Government Constituency Fund, which has received Sh30.9 billion.

Woman representatives have been allocated Sh 2.1 billion for affirmative action and social development.

Source:Daily Nation

February 16, 2017
Tanzania:Top education officials face 59m/- theft charges

{Four top officials with the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training were yesterday arraigned before a Dar es Salaam court on seven counts of embezzlement and misappropriation of public money and occasioning losses amounting to over 59m/-.}

The accused are the Director of Education, Bakari Issa, Emmanuel Mayuma (Accountant), Hellen Lihawa (Deputy Director of Education) and Mbarouk Dachi, the Assistant Accountant.

Before Principal Resident Magistrate, Wilbard Mashauri of the Kisutu Resident Magistrates’ Court in Dar es Salaam, the accused denied the charges and were granted bail on condition of availing two reliable sureties who will have to sign a bond of 50m/-.

Besides the sureties and bond, the court ordered the accused not to travel outside Dar es Salaam Region without the court’s permit.

The case was prosecuted by prosecutors with the Prevention and Combatting of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Emmanuel Jacob, Fatuma Waziri and Denis Lekayo. Earlier, Defence Attorney Majura Magafu, for the first accused, had requested that the accused be granted bail, arguing the charges were ‘bailable.’

But the prosecution, through Mr Jacob, requested the court to grant tough conditions to the accused as an assurance that they would report to court on regular basis. But counsel Magafu said the issue of conditions of bail was at the discretion of the court which alone could do so considering the nature of the charges.

He informed the court that the accused were under PCCB bail for a period of six months and through that time they had been attending court proceedings as directed – without default.

“This is a sign that the accused are trustworthy persons and they will abide to the court’s conditions, considering that the charges facing them are not very serious offences to make them disappear,” he said. Mr Magafu also requested the court to consider the bail and exercise leniency.

Source:Daily News

February 16, 2017
RDF conducts Army Week Medical Outreach for vulnerable genocide survivors in Ngororero

{Rwanda Military Hospital (RMH), through Army Medical Outreach Program, is offering specialized medical services to Genocide survivors in Ngororero District. The one week medical outreach organized in partnership with the Fund for supporting Genocide Survivors (FARG) is targeting mainly vulnerable survivors who are still suffering from physical and psychological wounds resulting from the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. The clinical services they will benefit from include orthopedics, gynecology, urology, internal medicine, psychology, psychiatry, ophthalmology, dermatology, dental, ENT and general surgery.}

The Governor of Western Province, Alphonse Munyentwari along with other local leaders, FARG authorities, Security Officials in Western Province officially launched the Army Week on 15 February 2017 at Muhororo Hospital.

In his remarks, Governor Munyentwari called all citizens to comfort and stay in solidarity with genocide survivors, maintain unity and cooperation. He further commended the RDF for stopping the genocide and helping the community to achieve security, good health and development through medical services, and other socio-economic programs.

“RDF has been exemplary in delivering good services to our people and also promoting unity and reconciliation among Rwandans. It is our task as citizens to take advantage from the good foundation and achieve progress” Governor Munyentwari told locals in Ngororero.

Brig Gen Dr Emmanuel Ndahiro, the RMH Commandant said that the medical outreach was initiated by the RDF leadership in collaboration with FARG with an aim of bringing specialized medical services near genocide survivors and other vulnerable people in remote areas of the country.

He said that from 2012, more than sixty thousand vulnerable survivors have received treatment through Army Week programs in 29 districts across the country.

During the ongoing Army Week Medical Outreach in Ngororero which started on 13 February , 900 genocide survivors are expected to receive medical services to be provided at Muhororo and Kabaya Hospitals.

In her testimony, Munganyimana Ancila, 64, recounted the hard time saying she was fiercely beaten and drowned in Nyabarongo by the killers during the Genocide but miraculously survived.

“I still live with serious wounds resulting from that situation. We are grateful for such medical services brought to us and express our sincere thanks to our Government and particularly our President Kagame for such care”.

Source:Minadef

February 16, 2017
Rulindo: SACCO cashier arrested over embezzlement

{A cashier at a savings and credit cooperative (SACCO) branch in Base Sector of Rulindo District has been arrested in connection with embezzlement of over Rwf1 million.}

Jean Claude Habaguhirwa was arrested on Tuesday following an ongoing audit done on the cooperative that discovered alterations in financial records.

Police spokesperson for the Northern Region, Inspector of Police (IP) Innocent Gasasira said that upon receiving the complaint, the cashier who was the prime suspect, was taken into custody as the audit and investigations proceed.

“The final audit report will shape our investigations and detailed case file on the exact amount missing and probably other people that could be involved,” IP Gasasira said.

IP Gasasira went on to say that mismanagement of public funds is an offence punishable and that “no one is above the law.”

Last month, Police in Nyagatare District also arrested two people including a manager of SAACO in connection with theft of over Rwf4 million from a saving and credit cooperative coffers.

The arrest was also executed after an audit by the central bank that discovered on the first day of their inspection that monies were missing without reason and that all indicators led to the manager and the cashier as people implicated in the loss.

Embezzlement of public or private funds is punishable under article 325 of the penal code with attracting a penalty of up to ten years in prison and a fine of two to five times the value of the embezzled or destroyed property.

Source:Police

February 16, 2017
Father’s diet impacts on son’s ability to reproduce, study in flies suggests

{New research involving Monash University biologists has debunked the view that males just pass on genetic material and not much else to their offspring. Instead, it found a father’s diet can affect their son’s ability to out-compete a rival’s sperm after mating.}

The study sought to understand if the nutritional history of fathers had an effect on their sons. Experiments were carried out in the fruit fly, which shares many similar pathways and characteristics with human genes.

One of the lead authors of the study, Dr Susanne Zajitschek from the School of Biological Sciences, said the study highlighted the importance of the paternal environment on future generations, even a long time before offspring were produced.

“Our study found that males that were raised on either high or low protein diets, but spent their adulthood on an intermediate diet, produced sons that had large differences in gene expression, which most likely contributed to the resulting differences in sperm competitiveness,” Dr Zajitschek said.

“They differed in their ability to sire offspring, with the high-protein dads producing sons who were doing much better in sperm competition, which means their sperm was more likely to win against a competitor’s sperm within the female tract.

“We also found that the immune response genes were less active in sons of low-protein fathers, while metabolic and reproductive processes were increased in sons of fathers on a high protein diet,” she said.

The research, published in Biology Letters, is one of only a few studies to have so far reported trans-generational effects in relation to diet quality, and one of the first to report on the post-copulatory advantages conferred by parental diet.

Researchers from Monash University, George Washington University, and the Spanish-based Donana Biological Station took part in the study which examined how high- and low-protein paternal larval diet influenced post-copulatory sexual selection and gene expression in the sons of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster).

Source:Science Daily

February 16, 2017