Category: News

{{The National prosecution has warned against form of abuse of funds deposited into the recently established Agaciro Development Fund AgDF promising Rwandans that the Funds will not be abused.}}

The warning was made on September 10 when the National prosecution was submitting its contribution to the AgDF.

Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga said, “We have contributed to this Fund and in addition we pledge to protect this Fund in collaboration with other institutions responsible. Rwandans should be hopeful that the funds will not be abused or personalized.”

{{Officers from Rwanda National Police (RNP) including other 62people, Tuesday received training on human trafficking counter measures.}}

According to RNP website, the one-day training was organized by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in partnership with International Officer for Migration (IOM) aimed at equipping participants with necessary skills and knowledge on identifying and responding to cases of human trafficking in Rwanda.

The trainees also include district labor officers drawn from all districts in the country.

Participants were taken through national and international human trafficking and the difference between human trafficking and human smuggling as well as human trafficking process.

Supt Steven Rukumba, the Director of Training in Rwanda National Police, while officially opening the training lauded the course organizers for their continued support particularly in the area of police capacity building.

Supt Rukumba noted that though cases of human trafficking are rare in the Rwanda, the country can be used as a trafficking route.

He said the course is an “important tool” to counter such cases, and urged participants to take it seriously and share the acquire skills with fellow officers in order to effectively detect and prevent possible human trafficking cases.

Anne Nyabera, from UNODC commended the Rwanda National Police commitment in crime prevention.

“The force is trusted by the community,” said Nyabera adding that the confidence the public have in Police makes it easy to investigate human trafficking cases.

Alia Hirji, IOM Project Manager commended Rwanda for putting in place administrative structures that help to investigate criminal activities.

“Rwanda has an amazing structure like the district labor office which operates throughout the country. This makes the whole process of investigating human trafficking cases easy,” added Hirji.

{{A woman in Kayonza district found in possession with about 15kg of cannabis narcotics is being held at Mukarange Police station.

The suspect identified as Bernadette Bampire 35, a resident of Kigarama Village, Rwantonde Cell, Gatore Sector in Kirehe District, was arrested on September 10, after she was identified by a passenger in a Kirehe-Kigali-bound public vehicle they were travelling in.

The passengers then took a decision and searched her bag where they recovered the 15 kilogrammes of cannabis.}}

{{Held under the theme ‘Creating Future Economy’, China’s Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao opened The World Economic Forum and explained China’s accomplishments over the past decades.}}

“After years of hard work we have laid a sustainable base for growth, improved infrastructure and built sound institutional framework.

We have cut poverty by half ahead of 2015, 100’s of millions of Chinese family have experienced tremendous changes in last few years and Chinese people have changed their life through hard work and perseverance.” The Premier added.

President Paul Kagame addressed the topic of competitiveness alongside the Chairman of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), HuangMengfu, State Secretary for Economic Affairs of Switzerland, Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch;

Minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia, Mustapa Mohamed and Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

President Kagame shared with the participants his vision for competitiveness. “Competitiveness is built for the purpose of having an impact on people’s lives.

It builds on how leadership and the people interact. It is the responsibility of leaders to create a level playing field that allows people to unleash their maximum potential.”

When asked about Rwanda’s approach to regional competitiveness, President Kagame explained that joining the East African Community allowed for increased competition.

“It makes it easier to build infrastructure that serves the entire region and resolves common challenges,” President Kagame said.

The session was concluded with a question to all participants on the prospects of improvement in competitiveness ranking for each of their nations.

On the prospects for Africa, President Kagame concluded by reminding the audience that many African nations have been working on their competitiveness.

“Africa has a chance, if Rwanda did it, many countries can do it better. Rwanda moved up 7 places. If we work harder, we can keep moving up,” President Kagame concluded.

{{Tanzania has inaugurated a National Defence College-NDC. The country will save on foreign exchange that would otherwise be spent on overseas training for military personnel.}}

Advanced studies at the NDC are aimed at ensuring the Great Lakes Region enjoys peace that has been elusive in some countries for years.

President Jakaya Kikwete said that NDC courses will include security planning, both internal and external. In the near future, the college will, in collaboration with the University of Dar es Salaam, offer MA in Strategic and Peace studies.

The college, which has the capacity to accommodate 40 students, has already admitted 20.

President Kikwete said, “We made it at the Tanzania Military Academy (TMA), we can make it here as well. This is a quality institution which will offer studies to soldiers from other Great Lakes Region while we also cut costs which we had been incurring in sending our senior officers abroad for courses that are now available here.”

Challenging the college management to maintain and even push up the quality of training, Kikwete said, “Security is a cross-cutting issue that requires participation and commitment of all stakeholders.

As our contribution to this noble endeavour, Tanzania decided to put up a college to cater, not only for our security personnel, but also for high level public servants.”

When asked why the college has been built at this particular time, he said: “We have well equipped training camps on which we built as a foundation for our army. Now it is high time we shifted our attention to senior-most officers.”

NDC launch comes only a few days after great lakes region heads of state concluded a summit in Kampala that deliberated on the peace and security in the region, with special focus on the troubled Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the closed door meeting of the ICGLR heads of state in Kampala, Tanzania was the only country that committed troops to form the neutral force to deal with the M23 rebels and patrol DRC Eastern Border.

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{{Rwanda National Police has made fresh appeal to the public to surrender any firearms in their possession.}}

According to ACP Sam Karemera, the National Focal Point Coordinator on small arms and light weapons, there is still need for timely sharing of information on the whereabouts of firearms and those that still keep them.

Community Policing Committees have also been urged to take such campaigns seriously.

A 12-year old Maldoche Dusingizimana died September 5, following a grenade explosion at their home in Nyarurama cell, Ntongwe sector, Ruhango District.

The blast took place right in their store- an indication that there are still firearms and weapons scattered or held illegally despite repeated calls to voluntarily surrender these dangerous weapons.

Although illegal possession of firearms has tremendously reduced, police information shows that firearms are still scattered in different parts of the country following the 1990-1994 war and the 1997 insurgency which affected most the northern part of the country.

Most of the weapons are said to have been distributed to the population by the genocidal government of Prime Minister Jean Kambanda in 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, especially in the Southern Province.

Subject to provisions of the Rwandan law, Article 671 of the penal code stipulates that ‘any person who illegally possesses, lends or gives an arm, or falsifies its identification marks, is liable to a term of imprisonment of six (6) months to one (1) year and a fine of three hundred thousand (300,000) to three million (3,000,000) Rwandan francs or one of these penalties.’

{{Residents in Kabuye sector in the outskirts of Kigali are calling for immediate strengthening of security in a bamboo forest located between the boundaries at Kabuye in Jabana sector and kagugu I in Kinyinya sector.}}

The thick bamboo forest has been a center of mysterious killings, rape and theft cases.

Residents of the area told IGIHE that the area is impassable especially in evening hours when such incidences are high because the thugs are said to hide in the forest to way lay passersby.

Just a few weeks ago, a pregnant woman was found dead in the forest after she was attacked by thugs.

The only safe way to pass through the bamboo forest in the area is by walking in a large group as a means of improving safety for one another.

It’s said in the area there is no sign of Police deployment and thus the thugs take advantage of this open window and take the law in their hands.

The Kabuye area leader Muhire Mashami Roger told IGIHE that security in the area has been increased to deal with the growing threats.

{{The EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Political Federation Dr. Julius Tangus Rotich said EAC was committed to promoting democratic governance in the integration process.

He added that good governance was a crosscutting issue essential to all stages of the EAC integration process.}}

Dr.Tangus was addressing the Chairpersons of Electoral Commissions from Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania at the 4th Meeting of EAC Forum of National Electoral Commissions opened Monday in Nairobi, Kenya.

“Elections and democratization processes are a fundamental sector, given our political integration agenda.

We cannot possibly hope to have one political authority without a harmonized electoral system and in this agenda, the Electoral Management Bodies have a central role to play”, said Dr. Rotich.

Dr. Rotich noted that Chairpersons of Electoral Commissions had an emotive and sensitive assignment, that concerns both high and low politics and that by coming together as the EAC Forum of Electoral Commissions, participants would support each other in the efforts to conduct elections efficiently and fairly to meet expectations of electorates.

He said EAC was developing regional standards as well as harnessing best practices from within in respect of promoting democratic governance and that the draft Protocol on Good Governance had specific pillars on democracy and democratization with comprehensive strategies.

Dr. Rotich said once the Protocol is adopted, it would form a major milestone in consolidation of democracy in the region and urged the Chairpersons to support and advocate for its adoption by the respective governments.

The EAC official noted that the bloc was at an advanced stage of developing and negotiating the EAC Principles on Election Observation and Evaluation as a policy instrument to support the Electoral Commissions’ work.

Dr. Rotich disclosed that elections were becoming more and more contested than ever before and that it were becoming instruments of political tension and conflict triggers.

“The level of participation, engagement and contestation is even higher, the fact that Citizens have become more aware of their rights and are holding their governments accountable, calls for integrity and professionalism on the part of Electoral Commissions”.

He said democracy was expensive, “but we need to think harder in devising strategies that help in reducing the costs of elections in our respective Partner States”.

The Deputy Secretary General disclosed that the EAC will deploy both short term and long term Election Observation Missions to the March 2013 Kenya General elections.

The deployment will help the Mission to appreciate and understand the dynamics on the ground and facilitate credible assessment of the elections.

The Nairobi meeting will, among others, consider implementation of previous decisions of the Council in the sector; consider the report of the workshop on “Peer- Learning in Election Management – Exploring opportunities for EMBs in East Africa”; consider a brief by IEBC – Kenya on the preparedness and challenges relating to the upcoming general elections; and consider planned activities towards the EAC Election Observation Mission to the Kenyan Elections in March 2013.

{{A Malawian national has taken the job of Hangman for the Zimbabwe government ending an eight-year search for a hangman.}}

There are about 71 executions in Zimbabwe waiting to be implemented but there has been no hangman for a long time.

Zimbabwe government started advertising for the job last year but locals were reluctant to apply despite the high rate of unemployment estimated at over 80%.

Justice and Legal Affairs ministry permanent secretary, David Mangota, confirmed at the weekend that the vacancy had finally been filled.

But he said executions were not due to start anytime soon because there were proposals to scrap the death penalty in the country’s new draft constitution.

“We now have a hangman who is raring to go but because there are indications that the issue of the death sentence might be dealt with in the new constitution, for now the government has embraced a moratorium in anticipation of abolishing it altogether,” Mangota said at a workshop on human rights.

He refused to divulge the identity of the hangman or his working conditions but said the salary would be “substantial.”

However, Zimbabwe’s proposed new constitution would abolish the death penalty except in cases of “aggravated murder.”

{{President Paul Kagame has encouraged Investors from Hong Kong to consider Investing in Rwanda saying Rwanda has in place good investment policies.

The president made the remarks September 10, while meeting 32 leading investors in Hong Kong before heading to Tianjin where he will be attending the World Economic forum .}}

President Kagame will speak on two panels; Competitiveness Champions and Africa’s Future Economy.

In Tianjin, President Kagame is expected to meet with Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao and will end his visit to China with a key note address at the Peking University in Beijing.