{"id":38130,"date":"2018-09-06T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/akon-obasanjo-and-lauren-to-participate-in-kwita\/"},"modified":"2018-09-06T21:10:37","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T21:10:37","slug":"akon-obasanjo-and-lauren-to-participate-in-kwita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/akon-obasanjo-and-lauren-to-participate-in-kwita\/","title":{"rendered":"Akon, Obasanjo and Lauren to participate in Kwita Izina tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among them are RnB Star Alioune Damala Badara Thiam, aka Akon on stage; Legendary Arsenal and Cameroun footballer Laureano Bisan Etam\u00e9-Mayer, aka Lauren; and former Nigeria President Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo. <\/p>\n

The naming of 23 gorilla infants is taking place Friday in Kinigi, Musanze District.<\/p>\n

The 14th ceremony, locally known as Kwita Izina, has come at the time gorilla population has increased to over 600 from 480 in 2010. <\/p>\n

Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has announced that a number of politicians, artistes, conservation specialist, philanthropist, among others, are thronging into the country to give names to baby gorillas. <\/p>\n

The ceremony also features two former Arsenal players as part of Rwanda-Arsenal deal dubbed \u2018Visit Rwanda.\u201d <\/p>\n

{{Expected gorilla namers
\n}}<\/p>\n

Crown Prince Sheikh Dr. Abdulaziz Ali Bin Rashid Al Nuami from the United Arab Emirates; he is nicknamed Green Sheikh for having dedicated his life to travelling and environmental stewardship.<\/p>\n

Dr. Noeline Raondry Rakotoarisa, the Programme Chief of Capacity Building and Partnerships Section at the UNESCO.<\/p>\n

Graca Machel, the former First Lady of South Africa and Mozambique. She is an international advocate for women and children’s rights.<\/p>\n

Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, an American-Senegalese singer, songwriter, businessman, record producer and actor of Senegalese descent.<\/p>\n

Samba Bathily, a Malian philanthropist, Samba is CEO of Solektra International and co-founder of Akon Lighting Africa with international Akon and Thione Niang.<\/p>\n

Alexandra Virina Scott: a retired English footballer who mostly played as a right-back for Arsenal Women. She made 140 appearances for the English national team and also represented Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics.<\/p>\n

Laureano Bisan Etam\u00e9-Mayer, commonly known as Lauren, is a retired Cameroonian footballer, who played as a right back for the Cameroonian national team and Arsenal FC. He was a member of 49-game unbeaten Invincibles team.<\/p>\n

Strive Masiyiwa, a Zimbabwean businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the founder and executive chairman of diversified international telecommunications, media and technology group Econet Wireless and Econet Media.<\/p>\n

Adrian Gardiner, a South African founder and chairman of Mantis, a family-run collection of privately-owned hotels, eco escapes and lifestyle resorts located around the world, with a large presence in Africa.<\/p>\n

Michael O\u2019Brien-Onyeka, the Senior Vice President of Conservation International for Africa, a non-governmental conservation and sustainable development organisation.
\nThomas Krulis, the Coordinator for Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) coordinator and CEO for Loto Investments.<\/p>\n

Hong Liang and Xinyu Zhang, the celebrity couple are hosts of the popular online travel programme called \u2018Lu Xing\u2019 (On the Road).<\/p>\n

Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall, the Vice President for Flora and Fauna International- UK. He is an English celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer and campaigner on food and environmental issues.<\/p>\n

Peter Riedel, the President and COO of Rhode Schwarz International, an international electronics group specialised in the fields of electronic test equipment, media as well as cyber-security.<\/p>\n

Alexa Gray, is the representative of Gordon and Patricia Gray Animal Welfare Foundation. The foundation is a supporter and donor for the VNP Expansion Programme through the Africa Wildlife Foundation.<\/p>\n

Michael Wale, the Group CEO of Kerzner International, a company that develops and manages luxury resorts, residences and integrated entertainment resorts.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Peter H. Vrooman, the US Ambassador to Rwanda.<\/p>\n

Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007.<\/p>\n

Theo Kgosinkwe and Nhlanhla Nciza, the duo known as Mafikizolo, are three-time winners of the South African Music Award for Group or Duo of the Year.
\nOdette Nyiramongi, the proprietor of Paradis Malahide Resort, an eco-friendly hotel in Rubavu.<\/p>\n

Rao Hongwei, the ambassador of the People\u2019s Republic of China<\/p>\n

Judith Kakuze, a former porter at the Volcanoes National Park, Judith is now on the Advisory Committee of the Volcanoes National Park Porter Association. In addition, she is a member of the Advisory Council of Kinigi Sector in Musanze District.<\/p>\n

Jeannette Uwiragiye, in 2017, Jeannette graduated as the best female student in the Department of Forestry Conservation at the IPRC- Kitabi.<\/p>\n

\"RnB<\/figure>\n
\"Nigeria's<\/figure>\n
\"Legendary<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Rwanda readies for gorilla naming ceremony tomorrow, a number of high profiled individuals have confirmed their participation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homehighlights","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38130"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38130"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}