Speaking at the event, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to Kenya, Amb. James Kimonyo informed that Kenya remains the biggest trade partner in Rwanda and that there is room for investors to cast their investment in Rwanda.
The envoy encouraged more Kenyans to take advantage of the enabling environment that includes an all-inclusive business permit acquired within six hours of application.
“In the area of trade, we are witnessing a steady increase of the overall trade volume between our two countries,” he said.
Kimonyo noted that Rwanda’s exports to Kenya include coffee, tea, hides and skins, and cereals at Sh 11.3 billion last year and Kenya’s exports to Rwanda have accounted for Sh 11.5 billion.
He said to date, Kenyan investment in Rwanda worth sh41.8 billion which makes Kenya the leading contributors to Foreign Direct Investment in Rwanda.
“We deeply appreciate the role of Kenya’s private sector for its huge contribution to Rwanda’s economic transformation,” he said.
He announced that Rwanda has dedicated this year’s anniversary to highlighting investment and business opportunities in the country.
“The ‘Visit Rwanda’ movement has attracted a lot of attention globally. After Rwanda signed a deal with Arsenal Football Club in May this year, the number of people searching Rwanda on line has increased by almost 6,000 per cent,” noting that they are confident that such a marketing strategy will bring a lot of tourists to Rwanda and sub-region.
He said, through the Northern Corridor Integration Projects framework relating to Single tourist visa, one can visit Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda using the single visa.
Speaking at the event, Kenya’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Macharia Kamau lauded the people of Rwanda for resilience.
“The transformation you have seen in Rwanda is monumental and was unimaginable 24 years ago,” said Mr. Macharia.
Both Kenya and Rwanda enjoy warm relations that are marked with close collaboration and strategic partnerships on issues of sub-regional, regional and international scope.
The event took place at Talatona Convention Hotel in Luanda, capital of Angola yesterday.
It was graced by the presence of Representatives of Heads of Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations accredited in Angola, senior officials of the Government of Angola, the Rwandan Community in Angola and friends.
On the side of the Government of Angola, present were senior officials from the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of External Relations and Ministry of Commerce.
Speaking at the event, the Ambassador of Rwanda in Angola, Alfred G. Kalisa revolved around Rwanda’s development journey and contribution to Africa’s development in 24 years after the liberation.
“In the framework of the Regional, African and International Cooperation, Rwanda believes in the opening of borders, especially since we are a country that relies heavily on tourism,” he said.
He reminded that, since January 2018, Rwanda offers entry visas upon arrival to all citizens of the world who have a valid passport.
He said that in the framework of regional Cooperation, Rwanda continues to do her best to ensure that the decisions by the African Union are timely and effectively implemented.
“Thus, the financing of the African Union’s budget for the import rate of (0.2%) has been accepted by more than twenty-two countries and is under implementation,” he said.
He hailed the recent decision by the government of Angola of waiving visas to Rwandans travelling there.
The Ambassador also hailed the decision of the Angolan Government to open an embassy in Rwanda, and the signing of Air Agreements that will shortly facilitate the connection between Kigali and Luanda.
Aurore Umuhoza, the coordinator of Women Council in the City of Kigali told IGIHE that the activity is in line with supporting the development and welfare of survivors.
The City of Kigali Vice-mayor in Charge of Economic Development, Parfait Busabizwa said that it with electricity connections, families will find it easy to accomplish a number of tasks that directly impact their lives.
“All children of the village used to gather in one home to be able to conduct their evening studies; so, having their homes connected will help them studying comfortably and perform well. We wish to have well-educated children for the good future of the country,” he said.
Among twenty families living in the village, eighteen of them had no access to electricity.
Joseph Sayinzoga whose house was connected to electricity and given a cow hailed the donation saying that they will be able to develop themselves.
“We are going to get milk for our children and fertilizers for farming. It is a good gesture which actually will transform our lives,” he said.
Felicite Muhimpundu, a mother of two said that her children used to depend on neighbors’ light to be able to revise in the evening.
In a statement to the Association of Importers and Distributors of Petroleum in Rwanda (ASIMPER), RURA said that pump price for July and August will not exceed Rwf1,109 per litre on Gasoline and Rwf1,093 per litre on Diesel.
“Reference to the above subject. I take this opportunity to inform you and the association in general that the applicable Kigali pump price for the months of July and August 2018 will not exceed Rwf1,109 per litre on Gasoline and Rwf1,093 on Diesel effective from July 5th 2018.
A statement that was signed by RURA Director General, Lt Col Patrick Nyirishema noted that the price is expected to be reviewed at the end of August 2018 to take into account international price changes.
Pump prices had in May also increased to Rwf1,065 from Rwf1,048 and Rwf1,005 from Rwf994 per litre of petrol and diesel respectively.
Radisson Blu Hotel Manager, Sami Ounalli told IGIHE that they brought the screens enabling their clients to watch the games as if they are in stadiums.
“We have been preparing this event for a long time and we know that people are interested in football. We want to offer something new in Kigali that has never been offered before, so, we are putting in place concept dedicated for the event. At our rooftop terrace, we have put there two big screens, sound and light with latest technology where clients can enjoy the games like they were in the stadium,” he said.
He said that besides having varieties of cuisines and drinks with a Rwandan touch, they slashed the prices bringing to the promotion where people can watch the game enjoying fresh and nice drinks.
“We have exclusive and nice place to be in with good environment to watch the games,” he said.
He said that in partnership with Heineken and Amstel, they brought good promotion, quality of services, food, place and equipment.
Ounalli said that the concept will stay even after the World Cup and they expect to bring other promotions. He added that they want to make the place a good destination for football enthusiasts.
The Director General of Rwanda Education Board (REB), Dr Irenée Ndayambaje made the remarks on Friday after meeting with English and Mathematics teachers attending an orientation in Rubavu District to improve their teaching practice.
The exercise was organised by Building Learning Foundations (BLF).
The changes aim to ensure teachers have high standards of English and ICT skills and this will also boost the number of capable teachers entering the profession, according to a directive by The Ministry of Education (MINEDUC).
“In a bid to support learning and teaching of English and ICT in Rwandan schools, I would like to inform all district mayors that with effect from 1st June 2018, all aspiring teachers who are recruited by your relevant districts must have passed an English and ICT assessment test before teaching primary or secondary levels,’’ reads part of the directive signed by the State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Isaac Munyakazi.
Dr Ndayambaje said, “Most teachers were trained in French language which makes it difficult for them to teach in English; this negatively affects the performance of learners. It is difficult to teach in a language you do not understand. Therefore, programmes like this BLF aims to support teachers to improve their teaching practice in English.’’
In Rubavu District, 75 state funded primary schools will benefit from the English and Mathematics training that will provide them with the skills to improve their teaching practice with support from printed and audio visual materials.
Agnes Mukeshimana, an English teacher in the district acknowledged the weakness of English teachers citing specific difficulties. ‘’We were trained in French and now we are expected to deliver lessons in English. At most times, we mix English and Kinyarwanda to make a student understand the lessons but it is not a good practice. Now that we have some tools that will help us coach ourselves, I am optimistic that we will improve our language skills,” she said.
Building Learning Foundations funded by DFID is a 25-million pound programme that will support 12,500 teachers of English and Mathematics to improve their teaching practice. The programme was launched a few days after the leaders in the education sector had come under pressure to improve English efficiency in Rwanda’s education system.
In its third edition, the Collective RW Fashion Week kicked off in class as popular local designers; House of Tayo, Sonia Mugabo, Inzuki, Haute Baso, Moshions, and Amizero showcased their collections to revelers.
The event is organised by Collective Rwanda, a group of five young fashion designers — Matthew Rugamba, Sonia Mugabo, Teta Isibo, Linda Mukangonga and Moses Twahirwa, who aim at promoting to promote locally made designs and attract local, regional and international fashion designers, models and other technical personnel to build a regional and internationally collaborative platform that will benefit all.
The Fashion extravaganza debuted at 4:30pm with Ogake Mosomi, a Kenyan designer who showcased stylish wedding dresses, followed by House of Tayo who displayed Cutting Edge Military uniforms marrying them with Kstobe Jewel’s ornaments. Haute Baso with Inzuki Designs showcased graceful summer dresses together with jewelry & assortments.
Later on, Makeda Mahadeo who was the MC of the session announced an hour break and revelers retreated to mingle as drinks and food were served.
The show resumed with Amizero & Cecily who displayed creativity and wit from the garbs they displayed to the elderly models tthey used. They were soon followed by Uzi Collections and Dokmai who also made a splash with their collections.
The last segment featured Sonia Mugabo, Moshions, Lisa B Marler, House of Tayo, Moses Turahirwa and Sonia Mugabo.
It goes without saying that with their grace, cherubic features and killer walks, the models that strutted on the runway were simply enthralling. They featured popular faces like Alexia Uwera Mupende, Toni Georgette, Jay Rwanda, Lee Charm, Fiona Muthoni, Kalisa Winnie, Neza Rachel, Umutoni Belise, Ugandan Waiswa Ronalds and many more others.
Along the week, high- profile British designer duo Catherine Teatum and Rob Jones, famous for their London-based luxury label Teatum Jones, which won the prestigious International Woolmark Prize for Womenswear 2017 are expected to showcase their collections.
The event was held in the presence of Linda Cohen, the Mayor of the City of South Portland and Francis Bukuzagara, Second Counselor at the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda in the US.
Mike Mwenedata, the founder and owner of Rwanda Bean Coffee, expressed his gratitude for the the Rwandan community and also from the City Officials present to support the launch event.
Rwanda Bean is a socially responsible business that sources directly from farmers, helping them to make the leap from subsistence farming to becoming skilled partners in the expert cultivation of Rwanda coffee. Bypassing coffee brokers is one aspect of the business that Mwenedata the founder finds most rewarding for his farmers because it has allowed for the farmers to earn a fair wage.
The store sells freshly brewed coffee straight from Rwanda and packaged coffee that has received accolade on grounds of the beans’ aromatic richness, complexity, balance, elegance and aroma intensity and strength.
In his remarks, Francis Bukuzagara, second counselor at the Embassy of Rwanda in the U.S. commended Mike Mwenedata for having launched a successful business, and reminded those present that such initiatives are made possible because of the favorable business environment that Rwanda’s leadership has achieved, allowing foreign investment to adequately do business with Rwanda.
“The state of Maine has the largest Rwandan diaspora in the U.S., and I take this opportunity to thank the Mayor for providing them with opportunities that have seen people like Mr. Mwenedata grow into successful entrepreneurs and good citizens. With such attachment, a sister city relationship between South Portland and a city in Rwanda would be mutually beneficial, and we are open to discuss how we can further this initiative,” said Mr. Bukuzagara in his short remarks.
The recruits are part of the group of 46 young men who were intercepted trying to cross at Kikagati, along the Uganda-Tanzania border, on December 11, 2017.
The young men appeared suspicious to Uganda immigration officers after the officers discovered that they were carrying fake travel documents. In addition to the fake documents, the stories about where they were going and the purpose of travel were not consistent.
The young men had been coached by officers of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) that when they reach immigration they should say they are going for an evangelical mission in Tanzania. However, most of them failed to stay on the script. They couldn’t answer simple questions about the name of the church they were going to; neither could they recall the name of the pastor of the church. Some of them panicked and revealed that someone was waiting for them in Bujumbura to take them to the RNC training Center in Minembwe, DRC via Bujumbura.
The immigration officers immediately alerted the police. Efforts by Captain Charles Byaruhanga, the CMI officer attached to Kikagati border, to intervene with “orders from above” clearing the recruits to continue their journey proved fruitless; neither did those of Major Fred Mushambo, the UPDF 2nd Division Intelligence Officer (IO).
The police took the recruits to Isingiro police station. While there, they revealed that they had been recruited from different places in Uganda (Nyakivala, Kiboga, Kibale, and Mubende) to join the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), and revealed their recruiters as Musoni Jeffrey, Moses Bijura, Felix Mwizerwa, and Dr. Sam Ruvuma. Among the recruiters, only Musoni, a former Sgt deserter in the Rwanda Patriotic army (RPA), and Bijura, a pastor in Rubare, Ntungamo, were arrested at Kikagati.
Dr. Sam Ruvuma, a brother to Lt. Colonel Gideon Katinda of the military court, and Felix Mwizerwa, a son of Pastor Deo Nyirigira, also a known RNC coordinator in Mbarara, somehow managed to flee the scene at Kikagati, abandoning the young recruits there.
Dr. Sam Ruvuma was only arrested by police days later in Mbarara and kept for a few days before he was released following orders from “way” above. He is back to his RNC recruitment activities in, and around, Mbarara. As for Felix Mwizerwa, he has now relocated to Minembwe, DRC, where he is an RNC Commander.
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The release of the 39 recruits last week was a result of a bribe that was given to the magistrate judge handling their case. This bribe, sources say, was negotiated on behalf of the RNC by Edgar Tabaro Muvunyi of the law firm Karuhanga, Tabaro, and Associates. Moreover, the remaining seven, including the recruiters Bijura and Musoni, whose case is at the High Court, are also expected to be released soon, according to testimony from those who have been set free and are now back to Nyakivale, Bubende, Kiboga, and Kampala. They have been told to prepare to continue with their journey to the RNC camp in the DRC in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, one of the recruits from Kibale, upon his release from jail, returned home angry because of the suffering he had been duped into by the person who recruited him. He reported the RNC recruiter in the area to the police, which promptly arrested him (the recruiter). However, it is expected that he will also be released like the rest of them.
On March 25 during a joint press conference between President Museveni and President Kagame, the Ugandan president acknowledged that, “When I met president Kagame in Addis Ababa he gave me some facts which I followed up. A group of Banyarwanda was being recruited through Tanzania and Burundi to go to Congo. They said they were going for church work but when they were interrogated it was found the work was not exactly religious. It was something else.”
Museveni’s own admission of a rebel group being recruited in his country with the support of his intelligence agencies ends up with the recruits being freed without charges brought against them, and are now free to proceed to the rebel training grounds in the DRC.
Significantly, the release of the recruits by the courts after such admission from the president himself does more than embolden the RNC and CMI in their scheme to destabilize Rwanda; it’s nothing short of an instruction of intent from the Commander in Chief.
Which leads to the questions: What message does Uganda send to Rwanda when rebels recruited to fight the latter are caught and set free? And has Uganda thought well and hard that this is the message it really wants to send to its neighbor?
The Ceremony took place at the School’s HQ in Nyarutarama, Gasabo district.
Stephen Rudakemwa, director of Wellspring Academy, congratulated the new graduates and remarked that the certificates that had been handed out would remain pieces of paper if not exploited so as to bring change in the world.
“We give these certificates to our graduates because we are certain that they are ready to use the knowledge and values they acquired from here. Christian values must accompany science to succeed in life. We urge them to be the change our country need,” he said.
He further said it was a good step by the school for graduating students at the second time, producing good minds for the future of the country.
The remarks were echoed by Ntaganda Damien who spoke in the name of the board of directors of Wellspring Academy, noting that the school trains students to be good leaders who will transform Rwanda and show difference in the world entirely.
Speaking during the event, the National Coordinator of the National Early Childhood Development Program, Dr Anita Asiimwe who was also the guest of Honor, said that the graduation day was a great opportunity for students to look back and reflect on the journey that have been covered, but also to prepare themselves for what lays ahead.
“As this day ends, take the time to consider every words and memories, but most importantly learn from what happened and strive to be the future great leaders our country needs.”
She further noted that as the school marks 11 years of operations, it was imperative that they take the time to consider what could be done so as to continue training future leaders for the country and the world as the school’s mission of the school.
Located in Nyarutarama, Wellspring Academy was established by members of Christian Life Assembly and Wellspring Foundation in 2007, with a mission to instill Christian values in students while healing the wounds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
The school is among the best schools in Kigali and currently has graduated more than 100 students since it was officiated.
