Category: News

President Paul Kagame has said that low financial capacity should not retard innovative ideas among students, adding that the problem is lack of proper entrepreneurial and developmental skills that matches with the modern society.

The Head of State made the comments yesterday while addressing over 12,000 students and staff of the National University of Rwanda (NUR) at the university stadium in Huye District, Southern Province.

Shortly before addressing the NUR community, President Kagame, officially opened a state-of-the-art ICT laboratory at the University constructed with the support of the Republic of Korea.

Addressing the students, President Kagame said that he was pleased to discuss the role of higher education and its importance to the nation, particularly the contribution of the university community in the transformation of the Rwandan society. He further asked students to work hard since nothing is easy in life.

“Nothing can easily come without working and sweating for it,” he challenged NUR students and staff.

Kagame called upon the students to be innovative and self reliant and capitalise on the newly established ICT laboratory to achieve new and constructive ideas that would help the nation attain sustainable development.

He urged the students to be job creators as the youth of 21st century observing that they should not rely only on their lecturers’ notes ; but should instead engage deeper into research.

The President assured them that the government was behind them adding that it would work closely with the university to meet various challenges. The president said the government considers education as one of the main pillars of development and will continue to invest heavily in the sector.

The Rector of NUR, Prof Silas Lwakabamba, said that the newly inaugurated ICT school would be important in offering ICT courses, adding that it represents a large and Important new resource for staff and students at NUR.

He noted that the structure has 11 laboratories with 400 computers and is the best of its kind in Africa. The facility was equipped at a cost of US$4.7m with the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) donating US$4m.

Prof. Lwakabamba commended the Korean government for the continued support, and added that more projects were yet to come, to expand the University infrastructure much needed.

Prior to his speech, the Head of State had listened to the University’s Guild President Hildebrande Niyomungeri read out the challenges the students at the national university face.

Niyomungeri thanked the president for the visit and further commended the head of state for boosting the bursary for Students Financing Agency of Rwanda (SFAR) sponsored students by 70 percent.

Middle East-based flight operations group Nexus is moving into Africa with plans to establish a flight operations center (FOC) in Kigali. Nexus has just signed a memorandum of understanding for the project with the Rwanda Development Board.

“We are very excited about the new Nexus Africa, since it is the first step in our global expansion and we believe Rwanda to be the perfect place for our inaugural Africa base,” said Nexus chairman, Mohammed Al-Zeer. “Our ultimate aim is to be globally recognized as the leading African provider of flight operations services, employing the best, serving the elite, and being respected by industry leaders. This is just the first step.”

The facility will be built in partnership with the government of Rwanda, which has been working through its Civil Aviation Authority to make the country a regional hub for air transport. The FOC will offer the same level of service Nexus currently offers at its centers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Manama, Bahrain, catering to both local and international customers.

“We are delighted to welcome Nexus into our country as their services will provide links for travelers all over the world, not just to Rwanda but to the whole of Africa,” said John Gara, CEO of the Rwanda Development Board. “This move is aligned with our vision as well as our initiatives to promote tourism and trade and to also improve aviation safety and security within the entire region.”

Rwanda made headlines in the last decades due to its civil war, which officially ended in 2003. With its current stable political climate and central location, it is an ideal site for the FOC, according to Nexus. A date for commencing construction has not been set.

The son of
a man accused of lying to immigration officials about his participation in the
1994 Rwandan genocide took the stand Monday to testify about their life as
Burundian refugees in Rwanda and his father’s efforts years later to become a
U.S. citizen.

That testimony came as the defence team for Lazare Kobagaya began
laying out its case. The 84-year-old Topeka, Kansas, man is charged with
unlawfully obtaining U.S. citizenship in 2006 and with fraud and misuse of an
alien registration card. The indictment also seeks to revoke his citizenship.

Prosecutors have said the case is the first in the U.S. requiring
proof of genocide. An estimated 500,000 to 800,000 people, mostly ethnic
Tutsis, were killed by Hutu militias in Rwanda between April and July 1994.

Jean Claude Kandagaye testified that his father is a Hutu and his
mother is a Tutsi. Kandagaye told jurors that while he was growing up in
Rwanda, his family was discriminated against because they were Burundian
refugees. As refugees, they could not join political parties, attend public
secondary schools or get some jobs and social services.

Kandagaye told jurors that as a refugee his father was not a
leader in the Rwandan village of Birambo where they lived — a key point as the
defence team tries to counter the government’s allegations that Kobagaya was an
influential community leader who led others during the genocide.

Kandagaye, who filled out an immigration form in 2005 for his
father, is considered a key witness as the defence tries to show jurors that the
elderly Kobagaya did not understand English well and depended on others to
translate documents and help him fill out immigration paperwork.

Earlier Monday, prosecutors rested their case after putting on the
stand the immigration official who interviewed Kobagaya during his citizenship
application in April 2006.

Adjudication officer Jeryl Bean testified that Kobagaya responded
“no” when asked whether he had ever persecuted anyone or ever
committed any crimes for which he was not convicted. Kobagaya also denied ever
giving false information to immigration officials or lying to them to gain
entry into the United States, she testified.

Prosecutors used Bean to attack Kobagaya’s claim that he did not
purposefully misrepresent to immigration officials that he was not living in
Rwanda during the 1994 genocide because he was unfamiliar with the English
language and may have misunderstood that question on the immigration forms.

The defence has argued that it was one of his sons, Kandagaye, who
actually filled out the paperwork because Kobagaya did not speak English at the
time.

However, Bean told jurors that Kobagaya spoke English and that no
interpreter or family member was present during the 2006 interview for his
citizenship.

The National Bank of Rwanda will aim to keep inflation below 7.5 percent this year, lower than a previous estimate of 8 percent, newly appointed Governor Claver Gatete said.

The inflation rate climbed to 5 percent in April from 4.1 percent a month earlier as food and fuel prices increased. Last month, former Governor Francois Kanimba said inflation may reach 8 percent this year. Gatete, who was appointed as Kanimba’s replacement on May 6, said the official estimate is that inflation will reach 7.5 percent by the end of the year.

“We don’t want it to go that far,” he said in an interview after his swearing-in ceremony on May 13 in Kigali, the capital. “We are fighting inflation.”

The National Bank of Rwanda kept its key lending rate unchanged at 6 percent last month, after three reductions in the past year, to help boost lending and support the economy’s expansion. Rwanda’s Finance Ministry has forecast economic growth in the coffee-growing country will slow to 7 percent this year from 7.5 percent in 2010 as poor rains curb agricultural production.

The central bank hasn’t decided whether it will raise interest rates to curb inflation, Gatete said.

Rwanda’s national budget will increase to 1.12 trillion Rwandan francs ($1.85 billion) in the 2011-12 fiscal year, from 984 billion francs a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Finance. The increase has been accounted for in the central bank’s inflation projection, Gatete said. Inflation advance last month largely because of higher food and fuel costs, he said.

While food prices are still rising, the rate of increase has slowed, he said. In April, food prices climbed 6 percent, after jumping 8 percent in the previous month. Higher fuel prices are mainly due to political instability in the Middle East and are beyond the bank’s control, he said. Gasoline prices in Rwanda increased 14 percent between January and April, according to industry regulators.

“We can only control the effects,” Gatete said.

Gatete, a former ambassador to the U.K. and previously a deputy governor at the central bank, replaced Kanimba after his predecessor was named as the new minister of trade.

Gatete said he plans to focus on modernizing communication systems, training staff and improving research capabilities at the bank during his tenure as governor.

The Czech Republic Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tomas Dub yesterday held discussions with Defense Minister Gen. James Kabarebe about strengthening defense ties between his country and Rwanda.

“In the recent months, we signed a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation” Dub said after the meeting. “Leaving aside the MoU signed recently, the two countries can exchange a lot of fighting techniques,” Dub said.

He however noted that the pact between the two countries is not fully implemented hence the continuous visits and discussions on how to strengthen defense ties between Rwanda and Czech Republic.

“I would like my visit to simply focus on continuing our cooperation,” he said.

Defence and military Spokesperson, Lt. Col. Jill Rutaremara, told reporters that Dub’s visit at the ministry aimed at looking into how the Rwanda-Czech defence pact can be implemented.

He added that Rwanda could learn a lot from the Czechs mainly in fighting techniques, particularly through its air force.

Dub later invited the defense and foreign affairs ministers to the Czech Republic to pick out what Rwanda could learn from them.

The Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, yesterday received in his office 15 students and three professors from the department of International Peace and Conflict Resolution of Arcadia University in Pennsylvania, the United States.

The delegation is in Rwanda on a week-long study tour to gain a deeper understanding of the country’s conflict resolution management.

“They are here to find out how genocide survivors managed to reconcile with the genocide perpetrators, “Minister Justice Tharcisse Karugarama told reporters.

Karugarama told the delegation that the country’s judicial system during the pre-genocidal era was inept where to become a judge or prosecutor never required any academic qualification.

“There was no fairness at all and to become a judge or prosecutor never required you to present your papers ; but through the will of the then President, he could appoint you (as judge or prosecutor) because he had full powers,” he pointed out.

Minister told the US delegation that Rwanda’s justice system is today based on truth, equity, fairness and transparency, adding that the present government laid emphasis on training of judges and prosecutors to try the colossal backlog of genocide perpetrators in the country’s prison facilities.

The minister briefed the delegation on the Gacaca courts system which had tried many perpetrators compared to the contemporary justice system which led to delays. He further attributed notable peace in the country to the unprecedented success of the Gacaca which resolved 1.5 million Genocide-related cases.

Karugarama underlined that Rwandans today believe in forgiveness and tolerance where both perpetrators and survivors live in harmony.

He allegorically underscored that though Rwanda has 1000 problems, it correspondingly has 1000 solutions.

The delegation also nods in the agreement for the introduction of Gacaca courts. I think how we are told, if that’s how it works, it is then efficient,” Connor Moriaty a student part of the delegation noted.

A member of the delegation and a student at the university Connor Moriaty lauded the role of Gacaca courts.

“Basing on the account given to us, the Gacaca court system is efficient,” he said.

President Paul Kagame yesterday at Village Urugwiro met with representatives from a consortium of 16 top medical, nursing and health management schools universities from the U.S through the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

The delegation of 38 health experts is in the country on a week long study tour to explore ways of enriching the Rwandan health sector.

Ira Magaziner, the Chief Executive Officer and the Vice Chair, Clinton Health Initiative (CHAI), who is the head of the delegation, said their discussions with the President centred on the benefits that would arise out of a partnership with the Ministry of Health.

“We discussed with the President about the ways of promoting good health in Rwanda while analysing the cheapest means of bringing Rwanda’s heath sector to the top,” Magaziner pointed out.

He revealed that through a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Ministry of Health, the CHAI would work alongside their Rwandan colleagues to offer world class training.

“By the end of seven years, Rwanda will have a world class health education system,” Magaziner said.

He noted that the programme is in line with the vision President Kagame shares with Clinton – to build a quality, world class healthcare system in Rwanda.

“The need is also to develop a base of highly educated people that can lead to the creation of research in health industries and the health economy of Rwanda, that is what we are working on with the leadership of the Ministry of Health,” Magaziner said.

The group will focus on several areas of specialty such as dentistry, nursing, obstetrics, paediatrics and many others providing diverse expertise.

The representatives were drawn from Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Virginia, Colorado, Texas and Maryland universities as well as leading nursing schools. 

Chantal Kabagabo, the Dean of Students at the Kigali Institute of Health said that lectures based on the partnership would be instituted within a year. The training would be conducted in health training institutions and hospitals to equip local health workers like physicians and nurses with modern skills.