Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Marie-Gorette Umutesi, the Police spokesperson for the City of Kigali said that the two suspects were arrested in Kinyinya Sector, Kagugu Cell, Kabuhunde Village with 6,233 pellets of cannabis.
CIP Umutesi identified the suspects as Chadia Uwamahoro and Damascene Nduhirabandi.
“Uwamahoro is the suspected supplier and Nduhirabandi is one of her retailers. Reacting on credible information, ANU first arrested Nduhirabandi with 300 pellets of cannabis, which he was selling to some consumers; Nduhirabandi was cooperative, he led Police officers to the house of his supplier—Uwamahoro—where other 5,933 rolls of cannabis were recovered and the suspect arrested,” CIP Umutesi explained.
“At the time of her arrest, Uwamahoro had just sold other narcotics worth Rwf300, 000 which she was found with. It is said that Uwamahoro is supplied by another identified big dealer, who is yet to be arrested,” she added.
“Rwanda National Police and ANU in particular, has strengthened operations against drug traffickers or major suppliers with focus on transit routes and destination including Kigali, and the general public is playing a central role in identifying and reporting these dealers,” the spokesperson said.
Anyone convicted for dealing severe drugs, in which category cannabis falls, under article 263 of the law determining offences and penalties in general in Rwanda, faces between 20 years and life in prison and a fine of up to Rwf30 million.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation yesterday wrote to the EAC Secretary General requesting him to notify partner states that the meeting that was set to be in Arusha – Tanzania on November 30 will not take place.
According to a letter signed by Olivier Nduhungirehe, the State Minister for EAC affairs, the postponement was at a request sent by a member of the Summit who was not disclosed in the announcement.
However, the meetings of senior officials, the coordination committee and the Council of Ministers, as well as the Business and Investment Summit that were meant to take place alongside the meeting will take place as initially planned, according to Nduhungirehe’s letter.
The session of the Council of Ministers and Heads of EAC Organs and institutions is scheduled to take place November 29, looking into issues like reviewing and finalization of the new structure of EAC Organs and institutions approved in October this year.
The council of ministers will also look into the budgeting and recruitment processes and the administrative and budgetary matters, including reduction of the recurrent budget and elaboration of an Administration of the EAC Secretariat Act.
Rwanda is the current chair of the six-member regional bloc.
Gen Nyamvumba announced this yesterday as he took over the reins of the ministry that was previously under the Ministry of Justice.
On 4th November 2019, President Paul Kagame made some changes in different institutions of government where some functions where added to the Ministry of internal security under the stewardship of Gen Patrick Nyamvumba who has been Chief of Defence since 2013.
As Gen Nyamvumba received office yesterday, he pledged total commitment towards upholding Rwandan security.
“I am very familiar with security, and so is everyone else that we are partnering with; but it is the responsibility of everyone to work hand in hand in assuring the security. This means there is still a lot to do and we will have to combine our efforts where needed,” he assured.
“To be given responsibilities is one thing, but to fulfill them is a very different thing. When you are entrusted with a job, you have to put all efforts and all knowledge to fulfill it,” he added.
Nyamvumba asked all Rwandans to work hand in hand with authorities to ensure their own security, stating that security starts with an individual.
The Minister of Justice, Johnston Busingye thanked staff in all the institutions they have been working with for three years, especially the Rwanda National Police (RNP), which was restored under the leadership of the Minister of Internal security.
It has been 5 months that the new year of mutual health insurance started but some residents of Muyumbu sector had not been able to subscribe for lack of money.
In their campaign on teaching on leading a healthy life and the benefits of environmental protection, Access Bank, in addition, built a house for one citizen who was homeless.
Olive Batamuriza, head of a family of four, praised this initiative that will enable her and members of the family to access medical services.
Nadine Rutabayiro, the Team Leader of Woman Banking at Access Bank said that the campaign was organized to teach citizens on leading a healthy life while protecting the environment.
“We desire to help people contribute in their wellbeing and take care of the environment. We cannot say we serve the country when its citizens lead a miserable life,” she said.
The executive secretary of Muyumbu sector, Gilbert Simpunga lauded the support to vulnerable families.
He added that Clotilde Mukankuranga, the resident who received the new house has a family of six all of who were living a miserable life. ”Thanks to the Access Bank’s initiative their lives are turning for the better.”
During a consultative meeting between promoters, RRA staff, and artistes, it was emphasized that artistes should understand workings and why they should pay.
RRA has assured that the majority of Rwandan artists now understand tax mechanisms and regimes and are now embarking on working with promoters that ship in international artists to ensure that they are, too, taxed.
{{Taxing international artistes}}
RRA representative, Innocent Kayitana told IGIHE that normally there are two types of taxes concerning foreign artistes.
“They are to pay 18 % of VAT and 15% tax on profit. This means that the total tax on their income is 33%,” he said.
Kayitana added that this has to always be categorically well stated in contracts drawn between the artist and the promoter, failure of which the cost eats into the organizers’ profits.
In the past, international artistes have been coming to Rwanda, entertain revelers and get paid, leaving with all their pay without benefiting the economy
The mission of the NGO is getting together to preserve the memory of the genocide against Tutsi and restore families to overcome post-genocide consequences in order to have a world free of Genocide.
Members of the organization are grouped into families, with a father, a mother, and children as a mechanism of covering the gap of parents by enabling orphans to raise their peers.
They started as wanderers on the outskirts of the Rwandan society, traumatized and depressed by the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that claimed their families.
Most of them orphaned by the Genocide, they had sustained
physical and mental cuts.
Today, the same survivors have become responsible parents and citizens despite the sorrow that they have had no chance of a parent or an elder to tell them what is wrong or right.
“When our pioneers were starting GAERG in 2003, they knew it was our responsibility to repair social and economic fabrics that had been destroyed by the Genocide” Egide Gatari the president at GAERG said.
Gatari said that the organisation rose to the vision of the country that genocide survivors can play a more effective role in the sustainable development the government had set.
“But how do we do that? By preserving the memory of the genocide, enhancing the concept of family because genocide had deprived us of the family which is the most important social fabric of society”
He explained that when those were addressed, survivors were set for undergoing the economic transformation as the rest of the Rwandans.
{{Starting out with new families}}
The idea of families that had started with student survivor (AERG) in 1996 was important even for those who had started a new life after graduating from universities.
“I think without these families, we would become impossible people, failures in managing our lives and a burden to Rwandan society,” said Alphonse Nkuranga who later became the Executive Secretary of the body in 2007.
In 2003 graduates started an organization that would be made of parents and relatives as it was in AERG and called it GAERG.
“We could not live without families. The government was academic wise supporting us but somewhere somehow we needed a social mechanism to meet our concerns,” Nkuranga said.
Nkuranga explained that as a family of university graduates, they embarked on sharing information about where to apply for a job.
“Our vision was to be intact all the time. But back then we had no capacity to always report to the office for a meeting or sharing opportunities, and the only communication tool was yahoo group mail,” he said.
For Nkuranga, the family that started as an artificial thing has now gained natural bonds as felt amongst family members.
“I feel something wrong when people say our families are artificial because I found sincerity family members whether in marriage ceremonies or in sorrow moments of losing someone,” he said.
Fighting genocide ideology and denial
The executive secretary at the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) Dr. Damascene Bizimana told this paper that GAERG has been very instrumental in backing the commission’s mission of fighting Genocide.
“To us as CNLG, having survivor young men and women who are working hard on their lives, is a great achievement of fighting Genocide because they are standing as a manifestation of survival,” he said.
Dr. Bizimana added that GEARG championed commemoration of completely wiped out families which would have no people to commemorate them since all their family members were killed.
A family is completely wiped out when the parents and all their children were all killed in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
“It’s the initiative of the young survivors at GAERG who start commemorating the families that were completely wiped out. As CNLG we give them support in their noble cause and we applaud them for it” he said.
According to figures from GAERG, since 2009, they have identified 15,593 families whose 68,871 family members were completely wiped out during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
Fidele Nsengiyaremye, the body’s executive secretary, said that the documentation of wiped out family was initiated to defeat genocide denial.
“The collection and preservation of this history is a sign of defeating denial,” he said.
Of the 15593 families that were wiped out, nearly 30 percent of them were enumerated in Karongi District Western Province and Nyamagabe in Southern Province.
GAERG is writing a comprehensive book and making a documentary film about the families that were completely wiped out during the genocide.
“We want the book and the documentary film to be out by April 2020 during Kwibuka26,” he said, adding that they are also “developing a database that will include the location of the wiped out families”
In Early October 2019, the Senate published a report on genocide denial and genocide, revealing that genocide the two evils had sharply declined within the country but rising abroad.
The figures showed that in 2006 there was much genocide denial in the county but were minimal in the new finding of this year.
During the publication of the report, the Executive Secretary at GAERG Fidele Nsengiyaremye proposed that genocide prevention should be a cross-cutting concern for all government and non-government organisations.
Dr. Bizimana says that the young men and women at GAERG are very active in publishing pieces of literature that reveal facts about genocide and fighting denial.
“GAERG has been publishing several facts about the Genocide and that is important in minimizing denial,” he said in an interview with this magazine.
{{Mental health}}
According to figures from the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), nearly 12 percent of Rwandans have mental depression.
The figures sharply rise to nearly 35 percent among genocide survivors.
In an effort to meet the challenge, GAERG opened a mental health centre in January 2019 called Aheza Healing and Career Centre located at Ntarama in Bugesera District.
While opening the healing centre, health Minister Diane Gashumba said the ministry looked forward to working with Aheza Healing and Carrier Center to curb mental health challenges across the country.
“We need the centre to boost our programmes in mental health to be more effective across the country,” she said.
{{Economic transformation}}
Since 2017, GAERG in collaboration with survivors’ fund (SURF) has benefited 25 members include three factory firms that were given bigger amount through the G- Innovation Development Fund (GIDF) and 22 with entrepreneurial start-ups.
“The three who were given bigger funds depending on the size of their businesses and they pay 10 percent interests” according to Pascal Ndayambaje in charge of Business Development at GAERG.
Ndayambaje said that “those who were given the support through GIDF include a bread factory, flour making factory and an online services company”
The innovation fund to the 22 is given to small entrepreneurs.
“GAERG stands in as the collateral security for the small entrepreneurs who are starting from nothing and stay with them to enable them to raise the 10 percent interest of the principal loan” Ndayambaje explained.
According to Ndayambaje, some have finished servicing the loans of which three want more loans.
“The three who want more loans will get it along with more five who applied for the support,” he said.
Regis Mugiraneza is a manager at Carl Group which owns a bread factory that makes bread from sweet potatoes.
“Late last year, I received Rwf7.5 million for the company’s factory. I had them machine operators but I needed installation, packaging, authorisation from a standards body and many more”
Since they started operations, they supply the sweet potato bread to more than 20 supermarkets in Kigali as they’re extending their factory to increase production and variety.
Samuel Mfitumukiza was a freelancer mechanic who used to move with his toolbox around Kigali to find a vehicle to fix.
“When I presented my business proposal to GAERG, I received a loan such that I can have a spare parts shop,” Mfitumukiza said.
Situated at Muhima in Kigali, Mfitumukiza is aiming at widening his business to become a garage.
GAERG has registered the Generation Innovation
Development Fund (GIDF) at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and is seeking a certificate from the Capital market.
“We want people to save as well as supporting each other through the fund”
{{Partners have joined patterns}}
From Government institutions through non-profit organisations to the private sector, survivors have been paid attention to, according to Egide Gatali the body’s president.
“We thank the government from the bottom of our hearts from President Paul Kagame to the lowest levels of leadership for their support of and making survivors’ concerns a priority”
We thank the Ministry of Justice and its affiliated institutions including CNLG who support us in seeking justice for genocide survivors
We also thank local government ministry and its affiliations such as FARG which has provided academic supported to genocide survivors, improving both social and economic affairs of survivors
The Ministry of Health and Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) has been very instrumental in survivors’ health and particularly mental health. A lot of surveys have been conducted and support to meet depression challenges.
Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) is the custodians of the non-profit organisation have been supporting us to achieve our goals.
We highly appreciated the Rwanda Development Board for its various support to our organization.
When we thought of a mental health centre, Bugesera District came out to support us.
We thank the district where the Aheza Healing and Career Centre is located. We as well thank our incredible sponsor Energy Utility Corporation Limited (EUCL) who supported the building of the above said Center.
{{Non-Profit Organisations}}
We cannot find the right words to express our thanks to Imbuto Foundation, Aegis Trus, European Grass root Anti-racism Movement, the Survivors’ Fund (SURF), student survivors’ association (AERG), women survivors association (AVEGA) and many more.
{{Private Sector}}
We thank Bank of Kigali (BK), COGEBANK, transport agencies and several individuals for their financial support.
{{Challenges}}
According to Nsengiyaremye the executive secretary at GAERG, genocide survivors are still regarded just like the rest of Rwandans in various aspects.
“The people in the communities where survivors live disregard several facts about survivors including the fact that they are demoralised with family issues”
Nsengiyaramye said that challenges such as unemployment are seen in general to the public, forgetting that it can be very detrimental to a genocide survivor.
“Society thinks of unemployment as a challenge in general but, imagine, a genocide survivor without a job, they have no parents or relatives to go to and no home to sleep and wait for opportunities,” he said.
He added that “we’re facing a big challenge in financial capacity because there’s a lot to do than there is the capacity to do”
Another challenge Nsengiyaremye stressed is genocide denial, the last step in genocide execution.
“Genocide denial does not only add assault to injuries sustained by survivors but also confuses people who would be willing to support survivors”
“Supporters start doubting if the people they’re supporting are really the survivors who deserve the support” Nsengiyaremye explained.
But despite the challenges, GAERG and other survivors’ organisations under Ibuka have stood the test of time for the last 16 years and are optimistic about the future of survivors.
“Our core values are integrity, excellence, innovation in a challenging world, and collaboration. These are values that have made us who we are and will become who we want to be”
Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Hamdun Twizeyimana, the Police spokesperson for the Eastern region, said that Evode Nyamuberwa had concealed 438 pellets of cannabis in a jerrycan of milk. He was at the time attempting to board a public vehicle to Kigali.
“Nyamuberwa was reported by employees of the travel agency of whose taxi he was trying to board after it was suspected that he had narcotics in his jerrycan of milk,” CIP Twizeyimana said.
“He was returning to Kigali where he resides with the narcotics. When Police responded to the call by the employees of the travel agency, they poured milk in another container only to find 438 pellets cannabis in the milk,” he added.
CIP Twizeyimana commended the vigilance of the employees of the travel agency.
“Such vigilance plays an important community policing role in identifying tricks used by drug traffickers and breaking chains of supply,” said the spokesperson.
Some of the identified tricks used by drug traffickers include wrapping them around their body, women veils, pumpkins and other groceries, tires, and fuel tanks, among others.
The decorated officers, constitute three contingents; two Rwanda Formed Police Units (FPUs) and a Protection and Support Unit (PSU), each composed of 140 police officers.
Others serve as Individual Police Officers (IPOs), and act as advisors and mentors.
Whereas FPU specializes in public order management like crowd control, facilitating delivery of humanitarian assistance, escort duties and protection of UN facilities, PSU undertakes special duties such as protection for VIPs and other duties assigned by the Joint Task-Force (JTFB) command.
The medal parade ceremony was held at the Rwanda FPU base camp in the capital Bangui and was presided over by Mr. Kenneth Gluck, Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (DSRSG) in charge of Political Affairs and Protection of Civilians in MINUSCA.
Present was also MINUSCA Joint Task Force for Bangui (JTFB) Commander, Brigadier General Coulibaly Bamoro, Police Commissioner, Gen. Pascal Champion as well as the Rwandan community and friends of Rwanda in CAR, among others.
The DSRSG commended the Rwandan peacekeepers for their sacrifice in restoring peace for the people of CAR.
He urged them to keep on combatting sexual exploitation and abuse in the remaining period of their mission mandate.
’’I extend my appreciation to Rwanda for the contribution in UN peacekeeping missions,” Mr. Gluck said.
He added: “Despite various challenges, you played an outstanding role in ensuring safety and security in CAR especially the Protection of Government institutions and protection of internally displaced persons. This guarantees your significant contribution to safety and security during the upcoming electoral period.”
“These medals you are awarded today are merit, keep up the good until the end of your mission.’’
MINUSCA Police Commissioner, Champion commended the Government of Rwanda and the decorated peacekeepers for their role in security and peace restoration in CAR.
’’I appreciate the Government and the Police of Rwanda for the contribution in ensuring peace and security in CAR through various actions, which were extended to the people through community policing and human security activities.”
I thank His Excellency Paul Kagame [President of the Republic of Rwanda] who visited CAR last month, for his outstanding role and commitment in international peace management,’’ Gen. Champion said.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Damas Gatare, the contingent commander for RWAFPU One, who spoke on behalf of the decorated contingents, thanked MINUSCA and CAR leadership as well as the people of CAR for their support and facilitation in the accomplishment of their mandates.
‘’I take this opportunity to recognize the endless and immeasurable cooperation and support extended to us by MINUSCA, National Security Forces, local leadership and the community that made our daily tasks a success,’’ ACP Gatare said.
Rwanda was the first country to deploy a contingent of Police officers in CAR in August 2014, a month before the blue berets officially took over the peacekeeping mandate from the African Union.
Contraception addresses the problems of the poor not by striking at their roots, but by shifting the focus altogether. It reduces poverty by eliminating the poor.
Contraception does not build neonatal care facilities. It does not reduce the distances that girls have to travel to get to distant schools.
It does not assure that the crop will not fail this year, and it does not boost small family businesses. Contraception is a solution, but not the solution to poverty.
{{Social destruction}}
Yet, you may still wonder: ‘Why not adopt hormonal contraception and extend maternal healthcare facilities to reach poorer women when it fails?’
When a girl on contraceptives does a pregnancy test and it comes out positive, the first words the man says are usually something along the lines of: ‘I thought you were using contraceptives.’ Although both of them were engaged in sexual intercourse not too long ago, the outcome is her fault. The blame is on her. It’s her burden to bear.
The next few sentences could take one of two routes. Either the man says, ‘We’re in this together’ – he commits himself to raise the child with her, no matter what – or he says, ‘What are you going to do about the problem?’ Or worse, ‘That’s your problem.’
And let’s face it: for 15-year-old girls whose sexual partners are probably incapable of financially sustaining themselves, let alone a family, the second answer is far more likely, even when it’s the man’s condom that failed.
This second answer reduces the woman, supposedly beloved, to a problem. She was never loved for who she was. If she was, then the natural consequence of who she was – a woman – would not be referred to as a ‘problem’. She was loved only insofar as she made her lover happy. She was used. Objectified. From the start.
The man – the objectifier – doesn’t walk away unscathed either. The objectification and the intensity of the sexual experience leave him wanting more. It’s part of male physiology
He becomes less able to have meaningful relationships. He falls into a void of loneliness that many have described, including celebrities like Terry Crews and Russell Brand.
When he marries (if he does marry), the marriage is more unstable. Again, this can devastate him and his partner, not to mention their children, who will be more susceptible to depression, anxiety and alcohol and drug abuse.
Their sons are more likely to become delinquent and to have trouble forming bonds with others (see ‘Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles’ by the Witherspoon Institute, freely available online). And this is what happens when the contraceptives work, which isn’t as often as you might think.
Multiplied on a societal scale, these effects manifest themselves as a dramatic increase in single, unsupported motherhood; a dramatic increase in crime rates and the occurrence of mental health disorders; and an increase in rape and sexual harassment.
The real cause of the crisis that Rwanda’s 15-year-old girls will face is sexual intimacy unaccompanied by the mutual commitment that marriage and offspring tend to come with. The directive that our government proposes is detrimental to both.
The effects this will have on Rwandan society will be enormous. You don’t have to trust us. Just look at the Western world yourself.
THE AUTHOR IS A LAW STUDENT AT STRATHMORE UNIVERSITY
Shincheonji, Church of Jesus, the temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (Chairman Man-Hee Lee, Shincheonji, Church of Jesus as below) hosted the successful ‘100,000 Graduation Ceremony’ on the 10th where 100,000 people officially were registered as congregation members and wrote a new history in spreading the gospel.
A person from Shincheonji, Church of Jesus commented “Having 100,000 graduates all over the world at once is the most unprecedented event in the world. Furthermore, there are about 200,000 who are at their studies currently and with this trend, the number of Shincheonji, Church of Jesus will exceed 1 million members within 3 years.”
The total number of graduates on this day was summed up to 103,764. Notably, the evangelism rate of these graduates was confirmed to be 142%, which indicates the geometric growth of Shincheonji, Church of Jesus is at hand.
