The village was constructed in 2008 . The village had neither clean water nor electricity.
Speaking at the launch of the houses, 36-year-old Claudine Mukarumanzi hailed Mininfra for the kind activity saying that they were incapable of paying for the rehabilitation cost.
“The houses now have metallic doors, new roofing while previously they used to leak, and our kitchens and toilets which were about to collapse are now renovated. This is a kind gesture which shows us that we have families. We will no longer go around swamps seeking water, we are happy to have clean water in our village,” boasted another genocide survivor, Thacienne Uwimana.
The villagers also requested Mininfra to connect them electricity from national grid for them to be able to create income generating businesses.
The State Minister for Energy, Water and Sanitation in Mininfra, Germaine Kamayirese urged survivors on resilience despite hurdles they may face.
She urged them on cooperation and to ensure sustainability of given infrastructures, she promised them on more activities.
“These infrastructures benefit people in general, more activities you wish will be considered so as welfare continue to develop the country in general,” she said.
Renovated houses took the budget of Rwf20,000,000; solar power system cost Rwf17.580.000 and water borehole took Rwf879.000.
Kagame chaired the meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting followed Consultation Meetings on AU Reform involving the Group of 15 Foreign Ministers and Heads of Regional Economic Communities.
The meeting was also attended by President of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Kagame commended the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat and his staff for excellent preparatory work they have undertaken in collaboration with Policy Organs and institutions of the African Union.
“Today’s meetings represent a turning point in the process of implementing the Reform and Financing Decisions. As decided at the Summit in January, continuous consultation, communication, and fine-tuning are necessary and beneficial,” Kagame said.
He also thanked the Group of Fifteen Foreign Ministers as the advisory body that will accompany the Assembly and the Commission in the task. “So, I want to thank you for treating this with importance, as it should be,”
Kagame said that the fundamental task of defining the division of labour between the Commission and the Regional Economic Communities must be based on solid analysis and clear consensus.
“There are no obstacles that are going to be insurmountable because we have to keep going forward for the future of our continent. That is why we thought it useful to invite both groups to spend this day together in deliberation and exchange,” he added.
With support and engagement at every level, Kagame said that the ultimate success of the reform is assured, with all the benefits Africa will gain as a result.
“My intention is therefore that this meeting be an open exchange of views, as to how we can continue moving forward,” he urged.
On African Day that was celebrated on Friday, Kagame said that it is the spirit that guides Africans, but, is also a day that reminds them on important task ahead of them to conduct.
The instruments were presented to Mahamat by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, cooperation and East African Community Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo.
Rwanda becomes the third member state to ratify the AfCFTA, after Ghana and Kenya; and the first to do so as far as the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons and the African Passport is concerned.
Mahamat commended Rwanda for the important step, which he described as a further illustration of its leaders’ commitment to the goals and ideals of the African Union.
He urged the member states yet to do so to take the required steps to become parties to both the AfCFTA and the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons and the African Passport.
The Continental Free Trade Area is a continent-wide free-trade agreement brokered by the African Union and was signed by 44 of its 55 member states in Kigali on March 21, 2018.
The agreement initially requires members to remove tariffs from 90% of goods, allowing free access to commodities, goods, and services across the continent.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the agreement will boost intra-African trade by 52 percent by 2022.The proposal will come into force after ratification by 22 of the signatory states.
DeGeneres and De Rossi both landed in Rwanda this Saturday night, 26th May 2018, where they were seen on Akagera Aviation premises.
Earlier this month, Ellen DeGeneres revealed on her episode of her popular talk show ‘The Ellen Show’ that she would be coming to Rwanda soon.
The ‘Ellen DeGeneres Campus’ will be the first initiative of The Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund, a foundation and gift from Portia DeRossi, DeGeneres’ wife during the comedian’s 60th birthday, who is a renowned supporter of late Dian Fossey’s work, an American scientist who studied gorillas in Africa.
The facility will be dedicated to protect and advocate the critically endangered mountain gorillas in the Virunga Mountains.
According to the information published on her official website, Ellen’s stay in Rwanda will consist of planning and designing the campus.
“With over 50,000 square feet of building space, Ellen will help create an atmosphere and environment that will focus on conservation, inspiration and education,” reads the statement.”
Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi were also recently seen in Nairobi, Kenya where they were spending time at Giraffe Manor.
The ceremony that took place on May 20th, is expected to raise awareness of the world in culture, civilization, and history through constructive Peace Education and Cultural exchange.
“Tîrgu Mureş City is a multicultural and historic city. HWPL is working to raise awareness of the world in culture, civilization, and history through continuous and constructive peace education and cultural exchange. Through this MOU, we hope that Tîrgu Mureş City and HWPL will be able to make each other’s culture more beautiful through “A Culture of Peace – the City project,” said Mayor Dorin Florea.
Regarding this peace-building cooperation, Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL said, “I am glad to be able to communicate with the progressive City of Tîrgu Mureş through the MOU.”
As for the role of individuals in working for peace, “Let us leave peace and better culture for future generations as a higher state of culture through exchange of culture of peace,” he added.
Then, Chairman Lee of HWPL and its peace delegation participated in the youth event titled “Youth, Let’s Voice out” in Bucharest Parliament House. The event was jointly hosted by HWPL, its affiliated organization, International Peace Youth Group(IPYG), and the Romanian youth peace group, Master Peace Ro.
“All mankind desires peace, nobody has wanted war. So, if we become one, we will be able to achieve peace. HWPL exists for youth. I hope all youth to join in peace activities of the IPYG and leave peace as a legacy for our future generations,” said Chairman Lee.
“We have all shared to you our experience during a period of huge political, economic, culture, and scientific, technological transformation. We hope that this working experience will contribute to your future in the next period of big transformation ahead of you,” said Hon. Emil Constantinescu, the former president of Romania.
Mr. Dragomir G. Marian, President of MasterPeace Ro said, “More than 1,000 youth have signed the DPCW and expressed their support. Today, I am happy to see the culture of peace promoted by the Peace Letter project.” And he expressed his hopes for the youth in Romania to continuously promote the activities of culture of peace with HWPL, such as peace education and peace walk.
The DPCW with 10 articles and 38 clauses includes provisions to avoid war-related actions and achieve peace, including respect on international law, ethnic/religious harmony, and spreading a culture of peace. In order to advocate peace and conflict resolution, HWPL has engaged in peace education and “the Legislate Peace Campaign” to raise awareness of peace to students and citizens around the world.
In this event attended by 200 young Romanian youths, HWPL introduced the DPCW proposed as a solution to the dispute, and the participants wrote the ‘Peace Letter’ urging the president to support the DPCW.
The three-year partnership, according to RDB will see the new “Visit Rwanda” logo featured on the left sleeve of all first team, under-23 and Arsenal Women’s matches from the new season starting in August.
The deal will among others highlight Rwanda’s tourism offerings such as the National Parks, which are attracting number of tourists due to growing numbers of wildlife including black rhino, lions, zebra, chimpanzees and the famous mountain gorillas, as well as the investment opportunities in the country.
Different people took on social media praising the deal as forward looking initiative, while on the other side critics were raised saying that it was not priority for a developing country like Rwanda.
Though RDB did not reveal the value of the deal, Dutch MPs wondered why a country which receives so much aid from the Netherlands is able to invest €30 million in sponsoring Arsenal’s shirts.
MPs tasked Netherlands Minister of Aid to raise the issue with Rwanda. They criticized the deal saying that it is disheartening to see such payments being made, while the international community is trying to tackle the poverty.
{{Rwanda casts-off the critics }}
The State Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and East African Community Affairs, Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe took on twitter that the deal is not part of Netherlands MPs’ business.
“Dear MPs from The Netherlands. This is none of your business. Rwanda uses revenues from National Parks to promote investment and tourism, aiming self-reliance,” reads the tweet.
He said that Rwanda will talk business with the Netherlands teams once they will have popularity like Arsenal.
“The day AFC Ajax or Feyenoord Rotterdam get a similar popularity worldwide like Arsenal, then we will talk business!” he said.
According to RDB Chief Executive Officer, Clare Akamanzi whoever criticizes the deal doesn’t understand the context of marketing in business.
“Anyone who criticizes our deal with Arsenal on account of Rwanda being poor or an aid recipient, either wishes for Rwanda to be perpetually so, or doesn’t understand that in any business, marketing costs are a key component of a company’s expenditures,” she said in a tweet.
“The Rwanda Development Board generates revenues from sale of tourism products, from which it uses a portion to market its products for further growth. The Arsenal deal falls within this arrangement, just like our tourism exhibitions, sales consultancies,” she added.
She said that $800 targeted million from tourism revenues cannot be achieved miraculously.
“Our national goal is to double tourism revenues to $800m by 2024, from $404 million currently. This won’t happen by sitting and waiting, but by being proactive, and marketing Rwanda as a tourist destination in innovative ways. Now- Relax and let the world Visit Rwanda,” she emphasized.
{{How tourism promotion will impact the lives of Rwandans? }}
According to RDB, the Arsenal Football Club partnership is part of Rwanda’s long-term tourism development and conservation strategy that is grounded in Vision 2050 and EDPRS II. As part of this strategy Rwanda has upgraded its conference and hospitality infrastructure, transport networks, tourist attractions and conservation policies.
Rwanda is today ranked third most popular destination in Africa for hosting international meetings and events by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
National carrier, Rwandair, now flies to 26 destinations globally. In addition, the Akagera National Park has been restocked with lions and Black Rhinos in order to make it a Big 5 park and the Volcanoes National Park has been expanded in order to create additional habitat for the endangered mountain gorilla. Today, tourism is Rwanda’s largest foreign exchange earner and has generated over 90,000 jobs so far.
Tourism has played a major role in helping the local community. One of the major tourism initiatives was the Revenue Sharing Programme that was initiated in 2005 by the Government of Rwanda.
The Revenue Share program aims to guide investment in the areas surrounding the various national parks in Rwanda.
Over USD 1.28 million has been distributed by the Rwanda Development Board to more than 158 community-based projects. These projects have availed clean drinking water, health centers, classrooms and housing to members of the communities living around the three national parks; Akagera National Park, Nyungwe National Park and Volcanoes National Park.
Kagame was given the cow in a colorful State Banquet hosted by Abiy in Ethiopia yesterday.
Speaking at the Banquet, Kagame congratulated Prime Minister Abiy for being the leader he deserves to be. He said that the trust and confidence put in him by Ethiopians was for a good reason.
Kagame said that being in Ethiopia was a very pleasant time of connecting heart to heart.
“This means we will be back many other times and for longer. We hope to see the Prime Minister, regional leaders, other leaders, brothers and sisters visit our country,” he said.
At the event, Abiy presented a cow and its calf to Kagame and described them as a great gift.
“I cannot thank you enough, it has been a great moment for us, we can only move forward hand in hand and work together. Thank you for the nice gift. I may stay in it for many more hours and days,” Kagame said.
“Thank you for the great gift that touches right to the heart of who we are and the many things in our culture which we share. This is a very nice cow and its calf, it will increase the size of my herd and will have a special position,” he boasted.
At the event Kagame also presented a dance portrait to Abiy as his gift.
“This is a dance picture – traditionally it is called a warrior dance; when you have a herd of cows or are a leader of a nation, you have a warrior and leadership spirit but you also need to enjoy the pleasure of dancing,” Kagame described the picture.
Kagame arrived in Ethiopia on Thursday and was received by Prime Minister Abey.
Yesterday, both Heads of States hold bilateral talks in Addis Ababa and toured Hawassa Industrial Park.
Abiy was speaking yesterday in Ethiopia, in a State Banquet he hosted in the honour of President Kagame.
He said that Kagame leads the continent in great, wise and miraculous ways.
“President Kagame is not only the President of Rwanda but he is also leading the continent in great, wise and miraculous ways of transforming the continent and economic integration, as well as realising the vision of our forefathers,” he praised.
Abiy promised Kagame to wave visas on people entering Ethiopia.
“The President invited all Africans to travel to Rwanda without visas, we will follow you very soon,” he said.
According to Abiy, Kagame is a great gift for the people of Rwanda and for the continent.
“President Kagame is a freedom fighter, great gift for the people of Rwanda and for the continent. After fighting for freedom it is difficult to establish institutions, but when you go to Rwanda you can see how this leader has changed the country,” he added.
“I am grateful to have President Kagame here in Ethiopia, we will continue working together, we have many great visions to disrupt this continent,” Abiy said.
In the event, Heads of States exchanged gifts, where Abiy gave a cow to Kagame and Kagame gave a dance portrait to Abiy.
As part of the three-day state visit, Kagame and Abiy held bilateral talks in Addis Ababa yesterday and toured Hawassa Industrial Park.
The office of the President has announced that President Paul Kagame held bilateral talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed.
The two Heads of State also visited Ethiopia’s flagship Hawassa Industrial Park, which Ethiopian government sees as crucial to meet its vision of making Ethiopia a light industry hub in Africa and middle-income economy 2025.
According to the World Bank, Hawassa Industrial Park is expected to generate around 60,000 jobs and $1 billion in export revenues.
Built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), the Hawassa industrial park, located in Ethiopia’s southern city of Hawassa, was completed in a record time of nine months and commissioned in July 2016.
President Kagame will on the second day attend a number of Consultation Meetings on the African Union Institutional Reform Process including with the Group of 15 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Heads of Regional Economic Communities and the Bureau of the Assembly.
Over time, Ethiopia has occupied a strategic position as AU host.
Earlier this year, African Union (AU) Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat offered his services to the government of Ethiopia amid political upheaval in the country, following Hailemariam Desalegn’s resignation in March.
It is the first state visit Kagame held in Ethiopia since Dr. Abiy took over replacing former Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn.
The statistics were unveiled during the launch of road safety week in Rubavu district.
The week-long nationwide campaign targets various groups including drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists, students and pedestrians to equip them with traffic rules and regulations tips and the overall road safety standards.
Speaking with IGIHE, the spokesperson for Traffic and Road Safety department, SSP Ndushabandi said that “Road accidents claimed 138 lives and injured 246. From those, 53 lives were lost from Taxi-moto accidents, injuring 111 people.”
The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) in charge of Administration and Personnel, Juvenal Marizamunda requested motorists to ensure discipline while on duty, so to prevent the loss of lives.
“Most of the accidents are caused by technical faults and are avoidable if drivers respected traffic rules.” He said
Statistics also indicate that fatalities caused by public services vehicles and trucks reduced to 40 per cent and 23 percent, respectively in the last four months compared to the same period last year.
The reduction, according to Commissioner of Police (CP) Rafiki Mujiji, doesn’t call for celebrations calling for responsiveness to prevent loss of even a single life to recklessness of motorists.
Speaking on thursday, during a consultative meeting between RNP, Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) and owners or heads of transport companies, CP Mujiji appealed to owners and managers of transport companies to take an upper hand to ensure the behavior and discipline of their drivers on roads, and take action against errand members.
