In a press release, Jumia administration announced that starting today until its official closure, it will only deliver to pre-paid requests.
Jumia will keep operating in shipping services through Jumia.rw and they are confident that they will keep leading the market in this sector.
Rwanda is the 11th country where Jumia stops its operations after a vigorous start where people dubbed it the ‘Amazon of Africa’.
In August this year, Jumia met a series of challenges and was dragged to court several times resulting in a loss of $70 million and a reduction in share capital by 14%.
Jumia Food started operating in Rwanda in 2012 and helped people around Kigali who had no time to go to restaurants get their food delivered on their doorsteps.
President Hage Gottfried was welcomed by President Paul Kagame at Kigali International Airport, from where he joined other dignitaries from around the world for the International Anti-Corruption Awards that were held in Kigali this Monday.
The awards that were named after the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al Thani known as “Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al Thani International Anti-Corruption Awards” are given to individuals who led the fight against corruption with finesse.
Rwanda and Namibia have cooperation in relation to police affairs that has been in place since 2015.
It is the second time that Namibian President Hage Gottfried Geingob visits Rwanda after July 4th, 2019 when he joined Rwandans in celebrating the 25th Liberation Anniversary.
The ceremony will be held at the Kigali Convention Center this Monday, 9th December 2019.
The International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award is organized by Qatar in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
In a tweet by Qatar News Agency, they confirmed that Sheikh Tamim Bin al Hamad al will attend the International Anti-Corruption Award.
“His Excellency the Emir of Qatar has landed a plane in Doha this Monday morning heading to Kigali, Rwanda where he will be attending Sheikh Tamim Bin al Hamad al Thani International Anti-Corruption Award.”
It is the fourth time the International Anti-Corruption Award will be celebrated but it is the first time they will be held in Africa. The awards were previously held in Malaysia, Geneva and at the UN headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
The ceremony will bring together more than 600 guests including nominees and the organization committee of the award. President Paul Kagame and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin al Hamad al Thani are expected to attend the ceremony.
Minister Johnston Busingye recently said that Rwanda has been chosen to host the ceremony because President Kagame has shown consistent efforts in leading the fight against corruption.
The Global Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International last year placed Rwanda at the fourth place of countries leading the fight against corruption in Africa after Seychelles, Botswana and Cabo Verde.
HH the Amir left Doha on Monday morning heading to Rwandan capital city of Kigali to attend HH Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award. #QNApic.twitter.com/6YlKQ0un0U
This was revealed by Wisely Phiri, group managing director and founder of Malawi’s information and communications and technology (ICT) company, SPARC Systems Limited, in his public lecture delivered at Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU-Africa) in Kigali, Rwanda on Thursday, October 28 where he was chosen to be among high profile professionals to give a public lecture.
Under a lecture theme, ‘Digital Disruption: Opportunities for Africa, Innovating Beyond Borders’, Phiri said digital innovations are positively disrupting people’s normal way of doing business.
“Because of various procedures and regulations, the banking sector was normally slow to innovate but of late various innovations have forced the banks to rethink their strategies. Firstly, finance and technology (Fintech), has allowed the banking sector to offer 24/7 real-time transactions without the need of the customers to visit the banks. We have seen banks embracing Fintech. Mobile banking, m-wallets and payment apps have now been embraced by the banks.”
Phiri observed that with the distributed ledger system, that blockchain is offering various possibilities such as fraud detection, interbank transfer, prevention of money laundering, among other advantages.
“As SPARC, our main vertical has been the financial, telecommunication and the public sectors which have been disrupted with technology,” he said.
Talking about telecommunication, Phiri said that telecommunication companies are no longer voice companies like they used to be following the convergence of telecommunications and data/ICT.
“Companies like WhatsApp disrupted how we communicate, changing the communication paradigm. Skype, Viber, WeChat have entered the market to pressure the prices down for text and voice thereby eating into the revenue of telecommunication companies.
“This, in turn, made telecom companies rethink how they do their billing. Now you are having social bundles and WhatsApp bundles for example.”
He said, going forward, companies are going into service-oriented architecture as they are moving away from innovating around technologies but into innovating around services.
“Companies are looking to add new services to capture consumer’s attention; accelerate time to market these new services with technology advancements; map end-to-end customer journeys from acquisition, engagement, retention and use Big Data Analytics to focused market segmentation and product hyper-personalization.”
He told the students who would want to venture into the technology career that if they want to innovate beyond borders, they have to think of the country classification and how they fit into the future of technology.
“The future is now and at Sparc, like our friends at CMU-Africa, we are envisioning an Africa where we lead change. Let’s be the change we need.
“Africa is an economy of 1.3 billion people by UN estimates. This is a continent with some of the poorest people of whom many live in remote areas; it is also classified as fastest growing in terms of mobile and mobile money penetration and one of the richest continents in natural resources.
“As Sparc, we have been asked how we choose countries to operate in. For example, having originally come from Malawi, most people would think the logical thing to do if we want to go beyond borders would be to open in South Africa since this country is in southern Africa and it’s more developed than Malawi.
“My answer is; when you want to innovate beyond borders there are rules to follow. Firstly, know your industry and have a solid foundation. You can’t fail to be a lizard in your backyard and expect to be a crocodile in someone else backyard; understand your market well and be specific on what problems you are solving. Then, understand the classification of the countries in your industry.”
SPARC Systems Limited was established in 2013 but it is making inroads in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia’s ICT markets where it has several branches.
Wisely left a successful international IT company and set up his own in 2013 and n two years, www.sparcsystems.africa grew into a formidable force with a leading market share in the IT trade and five offices in Malawi, Zambia, and Rwanda.
He currently employs 52 full time and over 300 part-time and out-sourced staff.
Wisley’s impact goes beyond SPARC as he has served the ICT Association of Malawi (ICTAM) as its president (2016-2018) and during his term, the number of paying members went from just 20 to 1,051.
He also supports numerous charitable causes including paying fees for students in various universities in Malawi.
To date, he has raised funds for 105 financially challenged students at risk of being withdrawn from the University of Malawi. Furthermore, he mentors institutions, IT experts and up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
Academically, Wisely graduated from the University of Malawi in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with Distinction.
Recently, he was an Adjunct Lecturer at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST).
From 2017 until 2018, he lectured in Business Innovations and Operating Systems which are some of his core expertise areas including database and storage systems, cloud services and data centers.
The minerals were recovered from the house of one Vestine Murekatete, the alleged illegal dealer, who was arrested in Ndego Cell on Thursday.
Police spokesperson for the Eastern region, Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Hamdun Twizeyimana said that Murekatete had opened a bar in Ndego, which she was using to cover her illegal mineral trade.
“On Thursday at about 2 pm, Ndego Police station received a call from a resident in Ndego Cell reporting a woman, who had brought quantities of minerals,” CIP Twizeyimana said.
“Ndego Police station responded to the information, conducted an operation and indeed recovered eleven sacks of cassiterite, which were found hidden in one of the rooms of Murekatete’s bar, which she was using to cover her unlawful deals,” he added.
“It is said that the minerals were brought by a group of people to her house that very morning at about 6 am. Law enforcement is working together to know the origin of the minerals, which were not tagged, and all those connected to this unlawful trade,” the spokesperson explained.
Article 1 of the Ministerial Regulations No 001/Minifom/2011 relating to fighting smuggling in mineral trading stipulates that nobody is allowed to purchase or sell minerals without commercial registration.
Article 4 of the same instrument indicates that the transportation of minerals outside mining licensed areas (concessions and permits perimeters) is only allowed when the consignment shows the source mine, its value and when it has the right tag.
“This is an act of fraud and tax evasion. We thank the resident, who provided information on the unlawful act and call upon the general public to always report anything illegal and suspicious,” said CIP Twizeyimana.
Fraud, deception, obtaining another person’s property by use of false names or qualifications, is punishable with an imprisonment term of two to three years and a fine of between Rwf3 million and Rwf5 million, as stipulated under article 174 of the penal code.
Mukandayisenga’s friend identified as Jean Semugaza, was arrested recently in Kigabiro alongside one Assouma Uwimana, with 1850 pellets of cannabis.
“Mukandayisenga approached law enforcement officers at Kigabiro station with a bribe of Rwf50, 000 so as to release Semugaza. She was immediately arrested for the alleged crime,” said Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Hamdun Twizeyimana, the Police spokesperson for the Eastern region, said.
It is suspected that the bribery attempt was initiated by Uwimana, a suspected major drug dealer in Rwamagana.
Semugaza is said to be one of Uwimana’s retailers.
The spokesperson warned against bribery and other graft related crimes.
“Corruption or bribery and trafficking and sale of narcotics are serious crimes, which no one should tolerate. A wrong thing cannot correct another; when you commit a crime to be ready to face the consequences, trying to corrupt officials will be another crime which you will face before courts of law.”
In article 4 of the law on fighting against corruption, any person who solicits, accepts or receives, by any means, an illegal benefit for himself/herself or another person or accepts a promise in order to render or omit a service under his or her mandate or uses his or her position to render or omit a service, commits an offence.
Upon conviction, the offender is liable to imprisonment for a term of more than five years but not more than seven years with a fine of three to five times the value of the illegal benefit solicited received.
Penalties provided under this Article also apply to a person who offers or promises to offer a benefit, by any means, an illegal benefit for him/herself or another person to have a service rendered or omitted.
Among the officials who were sworn in are Dr. Ntezilyayo Faustin who was appointed Chief Justice, Mukamulisa M. Therese who was appointed Deputy Chief Justice, Havugiyaremye Aimable, the Prosecutor General, Habyarimana Angelique, Deputy Prosecutor General and Nkurunziza Valens, Vice President of the Commercial High Court.
President Kagame congratulated the former president and vice president of the Supreme Court, Prof. Sam Rugege and Zainabu Kayitesi over their achievements and the way they executed the functions they were assigned.
He told the newly appointed judges that they have a strong foundation to keep building on to promote the judicial system in Rwanda and that he trusts them to fulfill their responsibilities.
“Compliance with the laws of the country should be a virtue we observe in our daily lives and we should not do it because it is mandatory but because it is our responsibility.”
President Kagame says that having laws that protect citizens is good but that their implementation is more important.
He reminded them that justice is based on the trust citizens have for judges and that they must demonstrate transparency, critical thinking, and trustworthiness in all their duties.
He urged officials in the judicial system to abide by the judicial code of conduct so that impartial justice can be served to all Rwandans.
“Trust is built, fought for, and preserved. You have been entrusted with bigger responsibilities that many other Rwandan citizens and your behavior should always be exemplary. There have been rumors of corruption in the judicial system and we need to fight against it so that it won’t stain our reputation and the vision of our country.”
He emphasized that whoever gets involved in corruption cases should be prosecuted, tried in courts and severely penalized.
Tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease normally caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium or Koch’s bacillus mainly affecting the lungs. It is transmitted through the air when the bacteria host coughs or sneezes.
A research made in 2014 on the corpse of a Peruvian who had Tuberculosis showed that Tuberculosis has existed for over 6000 years but the bacteria that cause this disease was only discovered on March 24th, 1882 by Dr. Robert Koch. This day was made the World Tuberculosis Day.
Recently, a team of Rwandan researchers discovered other bacteria that can potentially cause Tuberculosis.
Ngabonziza Semuto Jean Claude, the leader of the team of researchers responsible of this discovery told IGIHE that since Tuberculosis was discovered, researchers around the world continuously tried to find ways to cure it and analyze ways through which the disease is transmitted and prevent that.
So far, bacteria that have been discovered are in 8 categories and are named after how they are transmitted from host to host.
Ngabonziza says that in May 2017, the team he leads started research on severe tuberculosis in Rwanda. It was a research that aimed at finding faster ways to test severe Tuberculosis and treat it given the fact that it requires Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for treatment.
The team made in-depth analysis of the newly discovered bacteria and in December 2017, it was confirmed that it was indeed a previously unidentified cause of Tuberculosis basing on DNA compositions. The bacteria were found in a patient from Rulindo District.
Even though that patient passed in a very short period after he started treatment, research to learn more about the bacteria continues.
Ngabonziza stated that one of the unusual criteria of the ninth Tuberculosis bacteria is that it shows the genetic evolution the bacteria has undergone compared to the 8 previous.
Normally, it takes more than three months to confirm that treatment for Severe Tuberculosis is effective but this research will see this time reducing down to at least one week.
Ngabonziza added that while the team was trying to find out ways to reduce the time it takes for Severe Tuberculosis to respond to treatment; they discovered the new bacteria. It has never been identified by any researcher in the world.
Our patient was the only person ever to host that bacteria and it was not responding to treatment.
Research on bacteria is done by analyzing the bacterial phyla or major lineages that differentiate them from each other.
Since the research started, the bacteria that was first discovered was called Lineage 1 (L1), the second lineage, L2 up to the 8th lineage (L8)
The types of bacteria differ from each other by the way they are transmitted and the way they respond to medication.
Bacteria also differ from each other by their living processes which make them useful for the human body or make them cause diseases.
The bacteria that was discovered has not yet been assigned a name but it is very probable, it will be called ‘L9’ to signify that it is the 9th lineage of Tuberculosis bacteria.
The discovery will be announced in the Medical Scientific Journal, two months from now.
Throughout the research, RBC partnered with international research centers including The Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Lille, France, GenoScreen in France, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Switzerland and Laboratoire de Référence des Mycobactéries in Cotonou, Benin.
On September 23rd, 2019, Nyarugenge High Court was provisionally released Dr. Francis Habumugisha, the proprietor of Goodrich TV channel after being accused of assaulting Kamali Diane on July 15th.
While his case was being processed in court, the prosecution applied for a remand to allow for thorough investigations.
However, a few days after he was placed in detention, the court provisionally released him because after analysis his alibi was plausible and the witnesses he provided, were trustworthy individuals.
After he was acquitted, the prosecution filed the same charges for a second time because they were not satisfied with the final verdict.
They demanded that he should be placed under detention again. However, the decision has not yet been applied since Habumugisha fled the country.
On Thursday, December 5th, 2019, through his twitter account, Dr. Francis Habumugisha posted a picture of himself showing he was at an airport in France.
— Dr.Francis HABUMUGISHA Goodrich (@DrHabumugisha) December 5, 2019
News that Dr. Habumugisha assaulted Kamali in public were publicized on September 5th, 2019 when Kamali posted a video depicting the assault.
Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) apprehended him on September 6th, 2019 while his case was being investigated and waiting for trial for assault charges.
The following day, his dossier was submitted to the prosecution.
Article 121 in the Rwandan Constitution states that anyone who is found guilty of assault, inflicting injuries or beating another person should be prosecuted.
Punishments include imprisonment between 3 and 5 years and a penalty between Rwf 500,00 and Rwf 1,000,000.
When the assault is done on a child, mother or any vulnerable person, the punishment is imprisonment between 5 and 8 years and a penalty of Rwf 1-2 million.
The station will allow Rwanda to expand its power production capacity and reach the international market.
The station will also allow Rwanda to receive and share power with neighboring countries including Burundi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The project is part of Rwanda’s agenda to protect the environment by cutting on the energy lost during transmission and will allow easier access to power between countries at a relatively lower cost.
Shango station has transmission lines that connect with Uganda, DRC, Burundi, and Tanzania.
The interconnected transmission line will allow the above-mentioned countries to receive and share power.
Gatete says that a project like this one in a country that has the goal of providing power to all its citizens by 2024 is an important milestone.
“The station comes at an opportune moment as it has high voltage transmission lines that will deliver electricity over long distances. It has a transmission capacity of 220 Kilovolts and will allow Rwanda to receive and share power with neighboring countries.”
Shango construction project was sponsored by the African Development Bank (Afbd) and German government-owned KfW development bank. It will cost $14.8 billion.
Apart from reducing the cost of electricity for EAC citizens, the project has attracted the sponsorship of Afdb in various other power supply activities.
Martha Phiri, AfDB Country Director commended the efforts of the Government of Rwanda throughout the construction and completion of Shango Power station.
“All this is a collective gain by Rwandans and their government. This is all we have been waiting for to provide opportunities to the Rwandan youth to apply their knowledge.”
Gatete added that Rwanda and the neighboring countries involved in this project are finalizing agreements so that the station can be put to use.
The station will provide job opportunities to more than 800 Rwandan and add to the 70 Megawatts expected from Gisagara Peat Power Plant in July 2020.
It is expected that in March 2020, there will be an additional 56 Megawatts produced from Kivu Lake and 43 Megawatts from Nyabarongo II.
