IGIHE

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  • Rwandan Woman Stabs Ugandan Husband To Death

    Rwandan Woman Stabs Ugandan Husband To Death

    {{Uganda Police in Mbarara town are holding a Rwandan woman accused of stabbing her husband to death for alleged infidelity.

    The suspect is Bena Gateganyire, a resident of in Byafura cell of Mbarara municipality.}}

    She is detained for stabbing to death her husband Frank Bashaija in the wee hours of today morning on the suspicion of infidelity.

    It all started after Gateganyire found Bashaija drinking with another woman she suspected of being his lover.

    Amon Mwijukye, an eye witness narrates that Gateganyire entered the bar at around 2am when they were sipping alcohol and confronted her husband leading to a serious fight.

    In the process Gateganyire pulled out a knife and stabbed Bashaija twice. Bashaija died of over bleeding as he was being rushed to Mbarara regional referral Hospital.

    Poly Namaye the Rwizi region police spokesperson said that Bena Gateganyire faces murder charges. Namaye further said that cases of women killing their husbands have not been common in the area.

    The body of Bashaija is still lying unclaimed at Mbarara regional referral Hospital mortuary.

    {redpepper}

  • President Kagame Hosts Former Governor General of Canada

    President Kagame Hosts Former Governor General of Canada

    {{President Paul Kagame, Monday, at his office met with the former Governor General of Canada, Rt. Hon. Michaëlle Jean.}}

    Rt. Hon. Michaëlle Jean is the current Special Envoy for Haiti for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organisation (UNESCO) and Chancellor of the University of Ottawa in Canada.

    After meeting President Kagame, Rt. Hon. Michaëlle Jean spoke to members of the press;

    “The University of Ottawa wants to have a partnership with the projects of University of Rwanda so that we can contribute in bringing academic programs that do not exist and are not yet available here.”

    Before becoming the 27th Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, Rt. Hon. Michaëlle Jean worked as a journalist and broadcaster for Radio Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

    Aid from Canada covers a wide range of sectors, emphasizing trade promotion, judicial matters and cooperation within multilateral organisations such as the International Organisation of Francophonie and the Commonwealth.

    Canada has continuously supported the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (I.C.T.R.), since the tribunal was establish in 1994 to prosecute those responsible for the genocide. Canada deported Rwandan Léon Mugesera in January 2012.

  • Tigo Pioneers World’s First Mobile Money Transfer With Currency Conversion

    Tigo Pioneers World’s First Mobile Money Transfer With Currency Conversion

    {{Tigo, a subsidiary of the international telecommunications and media company Millicom (Stockholmsbörsen: MIC), a leader in thirteen 13 markets across Africa and Latin America, announced on Monday, the launch of a pioneering cross-border Mobile Money remittance service between Rwanda and Tanzania.}}

    The service was launched simultaneously in Kigali and Dar-es-Salaam in the presence of Rwandan High Commissioner in Tanzania H.E. Dr. Ben Rugangazi and Tanzanian High Commissioner in Rwanda H.E. Francis Mwaipaja who undertook the first mobile money transactions between the two countries.

    The new service allows Tigo subscribers in Rwanda to send money from their Tigo Cash accounts to Tigo Pesa subscribers in Tanzania and vice versa.

    The system integrates currency conversion, whereby money is sent in either Rwandan Francs or Tanzania Shillings and delivered already converted into the currency of the recipient’s country.

    This, according to Tigo Rwanda General Manager Tongai Maramba, is the first product of its kind in the world that allows dual currency international mobile wallet to mobile wallet transfers with currency conversion included.

    Once the remittance is received, customers can use the funds to access all the services and benefits that Tigo Mobile Financial Services offer.

    These include airtime top ups, payments for water, electricity, TV and transportation, transfers to bank accounts, cash withdrawals at any Tigo agent across the country, and convenient transfers to other mobile money users.

    To send money from Tigo Cash (Rwanda) to Tigo Pesa (Tanzania), customers should dial *200*7# while those in Tanzania remitting to Rwanda should dial *150*90#.

    This service can be used from any Tigo mobile phone. Customers in their respective countries will receive their money immediately in their routine currency.

    To register for Tigo Cash or Tigo Pesa, customers can visit any agent in Rwanda or Tanzania respectively. Registration is free of charge; customers only need to present their ID.

    According to Maramba, “This new product will save customers’ time and money. International senders currently have to go to a money changer to exchange Rwanda Francs to dollars and then bring those dollars to remittance companies to send. They can now send money directly from their phone.”

    Mr Maramba continued: “We are delighted to give our customers the possibilities to make payments to fellow East Africans.Thanks to a stable and state-of-the-art technology, users in Rwanda are able to send money to their families, friends and to their business partners across the border alike.”

    Diego Gutierrez, General Manager of Tigo Tanzania said: “We are pleased to offer Tigo Pesa customers the ability to send and receive international transfers directly via their phones. It is an added convenience that they can receive directly as Rwandan Francs because the traditional money transfer companies mostly deliver only dollars. This product enables consumers not to worry about exchanging money.”

    Murenzi Abdallah, a transporter working with a Kigali based transport and logistics company on the route Dar-es-Salaam-Kigali-Goma expressed: “I am excited about the opportunity to receive money directly on my mobile while in Tanzania. My life will be a lot easier in terms of making different taxes payments at border posts and other needs on my long and difficult journeys.”

    Millicom offers Mobile Financial Services in Tanzania, Ghana, Rwanda, DRC, Chad, Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Senegal and Paraguay and will extend its offering to more services and into more markets over time.

    The new service will particularly benefit the businesses with cross-border trade, diaspora families, truck drivers, importers and exporters from both countries. Tanzania is Rwanda’s second most important trading partner. In 2013, Rwanda imports from Tanzania amounted to 80,883,702 US dollars while Tanzania received imports valued at 231,695,265 US dollars from Rwanda the same year.

  • Kigali Traders Cry Foul as Rental Fees Shoot Up

    Kigali Traders Cry Foul as Rental Fees Shoot Up

    {{Some traders in Kigali complain about unbearable price of rental spaces for their to the extent that some of them started to relocate their business.}}

    Kigali City Master plan requires the construction of luxury buildings instead of former building which are considered to be out-of-date.

    Therefore, some traders say they do not support the new development of the city and the escalation of rental rates for commercial spaces.

    Among other conditions of higher rental rates of commercial plots in the city center is the fact that 80 % of building materials used by Rwandans are imported overseas.

    A trader who requested to remain anonymous said, “It is no longer a secret. Look there before you. These display areas have been deserted by the former occupants. The rent is very high, Frw 350,000 monthly (About $600), yet we record very few customers who buy items that we offer.”

    The result? “Some traders closed their shops to go where rents are affordable, “said a trader met in the Kigali market whose construction cost several billion francs to shareholders.

    Indeed, it is decided by the municipal services that the tenant of a business in City Center will pay Rwf 40,000 per square meter.

  • Israel Probes Prison Shooting of US killer

    Israel Probes Prison Shooting of US killer

    {{Authorities were on Monday investigating a fatal shooting in an Israeli prison after a US-Israeli inmate was gunned down by guards after opening fire with a smuggled weapon.}}

    The Israel Prison Services said it was looking into Sunday’s incident, during which Samuel Sheinbein shot at guards apparently using a gun he had smuggled into Rimonim prison, north of Tel Aviv.

    Three wardens were wounded, two of them seriously, as well as one prisoner.

    Sheinbein, 34, was eventually killed by the prison’s anti-riot unit.

    Police had also formed an investigative committee to investigate the incident, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told reporters.

    Sheinbein was sentenced by an Israeli court to 24 years in jail for the gruesome murder and dismembering of acquaintance Alfredo Enrique Tello in the United States in 1997, when he was 17 years old.

    He had fled to Israel to escape justice, and the Jewish state refused to extradite him because he was an Israeli citizen by birth through his father, in legal wrangling that caused outrage in the US.

    Following Sheinbein’s case, the Israeli parliament passed a law which allows for Israeli nationals to be extradited.

    AFP

  • Egypt’s army-Backed Govt Has Resigned, PM says

    Egypt’s army-Backed Govt Has Resigned, PM says

    {{Egypt’s military-backed government has resigned, Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem Abdel Aziz Al Beblawi announced in a televised address on Monday.}}

    “The cabinet decided in light of the current situation that the country is going through… to submit its resignation to Adly Mansour, the interim president,” the cabinet said in a statement.

    Government spokesman Hany Saleh told reporters that Monday’s decision was taken because there was a “feeling that new blood is needed”.

    “Egypt is moving forward. This decision will not affect foreign relations or internal stability,” he said, adding it was still unclear which ministers from the cabinet would keep their posts.

    The government’s surprise resignation comes amid a host of strikes, including one by public transport workers and garbage collectors. An acute shortage of cooking gas has also been making front page news the past few days.

    Beblawi praised the government’s performance in his speech.

    “For the past six to seven months, the government assumed its responsibilities and duties… the government did not spare any efforts to get Egypt out of a bad phase,” Beblawi said in reference to the country’s ongoing security and economic challenges.

    Beblawi’s government was sworn in on July 16, less than two weeks after the army ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi after he served only a year in office.

    It was not immediately clear who will replace Beblawi, who has often been derided in the media for his perceived indecisiveness and inability to resolve the country’s economic woes.

    Army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who was serving as defence minister and first deputy prime minister, is by far the country’s most popular political figure and is widely expected to win the presidency if he decides to run in upcoming elections.

    He has not yet announced his candidacy for this spring’s presidential vote, but aides say he has decided to run and will make the announcement soon.

    Al-Sisi is required to resign from the government and the army before he can officially announce his bid for the top job.

    The presidential vote, part of a road map outlined by Egypt’s interim authorities for a return to democratic rule following Morsi’s overthrow by the military, is expected to be held by mid-April.

    AFP

  • Facebook Reveals Online Education app for Rwanda

    Facebook Reveals Online Education app for Rwanda

    {{Facebook is helping to roll out a pilot online education program in Rwanda, as part of its pitch to bring internet to the unconnected world.}}

    Dubbed SocialEDU, the new initiative was revealed at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday and comes the same day as the social media giant’s founder Mark Zuckerberg gives a keynote speech at the event.

    As part of the SocialEDU pilot program, EdX will work with Facebook to create an educational app to provide localized education.

    This Facebook integrated app is being released under the umbrella of Internet.org, the partnership between Facebook and mobile companies to bring internet to those without access.

    The deal, which will initially be offered to university students, has been done in partnership with telecommunications giant Airtel, which is providing free educational data for a year to those who sign up and Nokia, which is offering discounted smartphones to those participating.

    The Rwanda government is also set to expand its free wifi in campuses and will adapt edX course materials locally. SocialEDU students will receive access to education from universities such as Harvard, MIT, Berkeley and others. The program allows users to interact with each other and with teachers.

    Facebook’s Chris Weasler, director of global connectivity, said the partnerships were able to “create a new type of educational experience that’s affordable and social.” It is hoped the pilot, if successful, will be expanded beyond Rwanda.

    The deal is revealed as focus at the huge mobile trade fair turns to Zuckerberg, who is making his first appearance at the event and is due to take the stage at 1800 CET/1300 ET.

    The famously reticent speaker’s appearance at the congress is being seen as a signal Facebook is set to put mobile first — as witnessed by the $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service, last week.

    Facebook paid 19 times more for WhatsApp than it did for Instagram, despite the app’s low profile in the United States.

    Zuckerberg said WhatsApp would continue to operate independently of Facebook, saying at the time: “The product roadmap will remain unchanged and the team is going to stay in Mountain View,” the suburban California city where it’s based.

    Days after the deal, WhatsApp suffered an outage, going down for more than three hours on Saturday. On Monday Zuckerberg is expected to face embarrassing questions over the glitch.

  • FDLR Spy Arrested in Rubavu

    FDLR Spy Arrested in Rubavu

    {{Residents of Bereshi Village in Rubavu District have arrested a tennager Nzirengera Jean Pierre 19, who admitted that he was an informer of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebel group currently operating in DRC.}}

    Nzirengera was arrested on 21 Feb 2014 after spending three months in Rwanda where he has been on mission gathering intelligence information to be given to FDLR militia Group.

    Nzirengera is a native of Ruhango Sector of Rutsiro District.

    Nzirengera confirmed that the information that had been collected was to be given to FDLR to help the later plan well an attack to Rwanda’s territory adding that his bosses told him the info will also help FDLR supporters including Tanzanians, he said.

    The suspect was arrested by local leaders after they found him without any identification documents, “We arrested him we found that he has no ID documents”

    After interrogation the young boy confirmed he is an FDLR informer.

  • Museveni Signs Anti Gay Bill Into Law

    Museveni Signs Anti Gay Bill Into Law

    Photo above: {Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni appending his signature onto the anti Gay Bill which has henceforth become law. The signing was held today at the Presidents office in the presence of press.}

    {{Museveni reportedly wanted to sign the bill into law with the full witness of the international media to demonstrate Uganda’s independence in the face of Western pressure and provocation.}}

    “Homosexuals are nurtured but not natured. No study has shown that one can be a homosexual purely by nature. Since nurture is the cause, that is why I have agreed to sign the Bill into law,” Museveni said during the public signing of the Bill into law.

    Before Museveni appended his signature on the controversial bill, he first consulted Ugandan scientists who in a report revealed that there was no definitive gene responsible for homosexuality but that the practice was merely an abnormal behaviour which may be learned through experiences in life.

    Email author {kwezi@igihe.com}

  • Catholic Priest Found Dead in Nyungwe Forest

    Catholic Priest Found Dead in Nyungwe Forest

    {{The Body of Evariste Nambaje, Former Treasurer of archdiocese of Cyangugu, was found on 22nd Feb 2014 lying in his car in Nyungwe Forest.}}

    Speaking to IGIHE, Valens Niragire who is also a priest said that while they were in a meeting at Mibilizi Hospital they received a call informing them that Nambaje car had been found in Nyugwe after two days.

    The source that informed other priests said that he saw the car parked in Nyungwe while he was travelling to Kigali and the next day when he came back from Kigali he saw again that car and this made him to call other priests informing them about the presence of Nambaje’s Car in Nyungwe Forest.

    Archdiocese has immediately sent a delegation of priests to check what happened and at their arrival in Nyungwe they found the body of Nambaje inside the car.

    In an interview with Police Spokesperson in the Western Province, CSP Francis Gahima said that Police had seen the body and is currently investigating the matter.