The two-day gathering is hosted by President Akufo-Addo, who co-chairs the Eminent Group of Advocates, along with Norway Premier Erna Solberg.
Below is President Kagame’s speech at the roundtable:
Good morning.
It’s a great pleasure for me to join you, Mr. President for this event, here in Accra. I would like to start by thanking you, for the invitation to participate in this important discussion, and the warm hospitality accorded to us.
I also wish to commend you, Mr President, and co-chair, Prime Minister Erna Solberg, for your service leading the UN Secretary General’s Eminent Group of Advocates.
There are two main aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals, that i will talk about, that constitute an improvement from our experience with the Millennium Development Goals.
We can take better advantage of these, as we work to reach the new targets, and transform the lives of our people.
First, is the strong emphasis on the private sector as an engine to eliminate poverty and create wealth, objectives that are at the heart of most of our national plans.
Integrating the SDGs into these plans, and ensuring their implementation, cannot be successfully achieved, by government alone.
This is why strong collaboration with the private sector, throughout the process, is critical, for reaching a win-win situation.
For example, the financing gaps for major projects, can be filled by private sector investment, through appropriate de-risking mechanisms, provided by the public sector and other partners.
Secondly, we now have an ambitious development framework to engage all countries, rather than just developing ones, especially knowing that there are cross cutting issues that affect everyone and every country.
This provides new scope for productive global partnerships and learning. This could include reaching consensus on how to measure progress, and support implementation, in ways that are most relevant, for our respective national contexts.
Rwanda will continue to collaborate with partner states, particularly through the SDG Centre for Africa, which we are happy to host in Kigali. And Mr President, I wanted to thank you for your support on that as well.
The centre was established to facilitate coordination and advocacy, and help us all build capacity to implement the SDGs. I invite you all to use and support it, as we support our continent.
Mr. President, distinguished audience, I would like to once again thank you for your kind attention, and I look forward to further discussion today.
Highly placed sources said the group, comprising only young men, were travelling on forged Ugandan temporary travel documents that were given to them by Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) to enable the group cross into Tanzania, then Burundi, and to eventually reach their final destination in Minebwe, South Kivu, DRC.
The recruits were travelling in a Ugandan bus with yellow and green colors registration number UAQ374B and lied that they were going to Burundi for a religious crusade.
However, when the group initially reached Kikagati border post, Uganda’s immigration department blocked them suspecting the authenticity of their travel documents. Immigration officials were also suspicious why such a big number of young Rwandan men would be travelling with Ugandan documents in one single group.
In the process of questioning the young men, sources at the Uganda’s Kikagati border post say, the immigration officials came under immense pressure from “above” instructing them to immediately release the group and allow it to proceed with their journey. The border post officials readily obliged.
However after the immigration officials alerted Police of this big group crossing with forged documents, Uganda Police immediately alerted their counterparts in Tanzania to block and return the group to Uganda.
Upon their return to the border, sources say, the immigration officials were again instructed to release the recruits and facilitate their travel into Tanzania with immediate effect.
It is at that moment that Uganda’s Police intervened once again, and with help from their Tanzanian counterparts intercepted the group and arrested all the 40. They are now being held in Isingiro Police station.
“It was total drama this morning–the scuffle lasted almost three hours,” the immigration official who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity told this website.
“When we released them the second time, we were shocked to see the Tanzanians working with Uganda Police return them.”
In a desperate attempt to cover up the scandal, a Ugandan website that is linked to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (www.softpower.ug) immediately put out a story claiming the arrested Rwandan young men were “refugees on a missionary journey to Tanzania.”
Instead of explaining why a large group of Rwandan young men were given Ugandan travel documents, the story chose to castigate Uganda Police for arresting them, alleging they fear the group could be taken to Rwanda.
Nonetheless, credible security sources confirmed that the group was part of RNC recruitment drive happening in different refugee camps across Uganda and firmly supported by the Brig Gen Abel Kandiho of Uganda’s Military intelligence, CMI.
As recently exposed, a parallel scheme exists of covering up this recruitment drive for RNC by claiming that Rwandans who go missing in these camps are instead kidnapped by Kigali. The scheme is run from Kampala by renegades Rugema Kayumba, Cpl Mulindwa aka Mukombozi and Sande Mugisha coordinated by Kayumba Nyamwasa from South Africa with facilitation from Uganda’s CMI.
“This incident in Kikagati today should raise serious questions,” a security source in Kampala told this website. “It is shameful that this recruitment is happening in broad day light and instead of questioning the culprits behind it, they are instead rewarded with promotion.”
Observers expect immense pressure on the Uganda Police to release the RNC recruits because those who helped to recruit them fear the young men represent damning evidence CMI’s sponsored recruitment for the terrorist group RNC.
Moreover, these developments come a day after news reports exposed the on-going illegal detention of Rwandans visiting Kampala.
Over the weekend, plain clothed security operatives suspected to be CMI – RNC agents arrested a Rwandan named Fidele Gatsinzi in Kampala as he went to visit his son in school in Mukono Christian University.
Since September, dozens of Rwandans have been illegally detained by CMI under unclear circumstances and subjected to torture to induce false confessions that they are Rwanda spies. These innocent Rwandans are usually pointed out by Kayumba Nyamwasa’s agents operating in Kampala.
As these arrests increase, a general fear of safety for Rwandans travelling to Uganda is growing by the day. Many of them now tend to alert family members, friends, and officials, whenever they travel to Uganda, asking them to keep keen ‘eye’ out just incase they suddenly disappear.
Most of the young men intercepted on Monday by Uganda Police were taken from Refugee camps of Nyakivala, Kibale, and Mubende where RNC fugitives, Maj. (rtd) Habib Mudathir and Capt (rtd) Sibo Charles undertake most of the recruitment.
It is hoped that with the arrest of this group, the truth about RNC recruitment activities in Uganda as this website has always pointed out, will be exposed and all those involved punished according to law especially when they are involved in recruiting an armed group whose intent is to terrorise Rwanda.
Kagame was speaking in an interview ahead of opening the ‘Campaign Against Genocide Museum’ slated on Wednesday 13th December.
Located at Kimihurura in parliamentary building, the museum shows the history of Rwandans’ bravery in putting an end to the genocide, saving lives of people as well as liberating the country.
Speaking about the history of liberation struggle, the head of state said that on 7th April 1994, he ordered the troops to stop the genocide and protect themselves.
“The order which came the next day was not only to protect themselves, to split so that they are not all under one heavy attack while in one place, but split for two reasons or more; one was that the force had to cross and go to the Amahoro Stadium where there were already people taking refuge and were being threatened. In fact they had almost under attack, so that force had gone to protect those ordinary people who had fled from that place,” he said
Even though there had been UN force around the area, Kagame said they weren’t going to do much or they were overwhelmed.
“They were requested if possible to join up the UN force that was at Amahoro Stadium to protect people who were fleeing and running into the stadium as well as fighting to protect themselves,” he added.
Meanwhile he explained that there were two companies from which one went to protect people at stadium and another one continued holding the ground by protecting people from outside as well as those who were on their way heading to stadium.
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Reports say that UN troops that were deployed in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi failed their mission of protecting civilians who were being killed, but left them to the mercy of killers.
Speaking about UN troop’s failure, Kagame said that the first reaction was to pull out their forces.
“I don’t know the UN had come here to do what, I wonder whether they were pulling out because they had achieved what they had set out to achieve from the beginning, which was not the case or they were really giving up on the situation and they were saying this is impossible to deal with and therefore we are doing nothing here, let’s go,” he said.
He said the gesture informed Rwandans that ‘We are there for ourselves and we are there on our own”
An outreach conducted by Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe in four districts namely Gatsibo, Gakenke, Ngororero and Nyaruguru has revealed that women are still spending much of their time doing household chores while more men appear in good income-generating jobs.
Sharing with the stakeholders about findings on gender gaps on Friday, Marguerite Mutumwinka, 2nd Vice President of Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe, said gender equality principles should be respected in planning and budgeting at national and local levels.
“We examined how this principle is being implemented in four districts and we found gender gaps. This is what we want to discuss with different stakeholders including government and non-governmental institutions and to jointly chart the solutions,” she said.
“Budget implementers are not duly considering the principle of gender responsive budgeting. Budgeting guidelines also have gaps and we want them addressed over time. GBS is in place but there are still gaps.”
Rebecca Asiimwe, Director of Gender Mainstreaming Unit at Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), said national planners do Gender responsive budgeting but local implementers are yet to fully understand it.
“More sensitization is required and it is a process towards change. With Government commitment to fighting gender-based violence, increase girls in science and technical education, we shall be able to address gender gaps in budget implementation,” she said, adding that more women in professions like construction and plumbing will help them make more money than many are making in subsistent jobs.
She said analyzing budgets from a gender perspective is integral to understanding the extent of gender mainstreaming within projects and policies.
Rwanda’s Organic Budget Law of 2013 on State Finances and Property enforces accountability on financing for gender equality and provides for mandatory gender responsive planning and reporting through Gender Budget Statements.
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Nelson Muhayimana, Nyaruguru District’s Planner, said they consider gender principles promotion in the projects but there are still areas of jobs in which few women appear to have the skills required.
“We consider gender equality in jobs allocation. For example, we targeted to give women 50% of supervision jobs in the last fiscal year and we got 60%. However, they are technical jobs like site design, mapping of roads and terraces sites in which women stood at 33% because they did not have the required skills yet we had to examine applicants’ competencies,” he said.
Muhayimana said women also have potentials to acquire technical skills and encouraged more sensitization to make women understand that they able and should look for jobs generating better income than they are making.
GMO report on Gender and Access to Finance released in March this year shows that female accessing formal financial services have almost doubled from 36% in 2012 to 63% in 2016 although it remains below compared to males whose proportion increased from 51% to 74% in the same period.
Women having access to informal financial services have decreased from 32% in 2012 to 24% in 2016 compared to males who dropped from 27% in 2012 to 17% in 2016.
Women having ATM debit cards were 40% compared to 60% men in 2016. A bigger disparity appeared in rural areas with men and women standing 76.1% and 23.9% respectively while it was at 52.8% and 47.2% among urban population. The uptake of mobile money transactions stood at 46% and 33% of men and women respectively.
In the recent past, dozens of Rwandans have been detained illegally by Uganda’s military intelligence under unclear circumstances and subjected to torture for allegedly being Rwandan planted spies.
On Saturday 09th November, another Rwandan, Fidele Gatsinzi was arrested by plain clothed security operatives suspected to be CMI agents and his whereabouts remain undisclosed up to now. Gatsinzi had gone to Kampala last week on Thursday to visit his son who studies at Uganda Christian University in Mukono.
Family sources say, Gatsinzi booked into Winks Hotel in Ntinda near Capital Shopers where he spent one night before being kidnapped the next day at around 9am local time.
“We have been trying to look for him for the past two days but we have failed to trace his whereabouts,” a close relative of Gatsinzi told this website. “We requested his niece to go and check his hotel but upon arrival, she was told that Gatsinzi left in the morning and didn’t return.”
However, his belongings remained in the hotel room.
Since September, dozens of Rwandans have been illegally detained under unclear circumstances by CMI and subjected to torture to induce false confessions that they allegedly spy for Rwanda.
On 23rd Sept 2017, three Rwandans, Bayingana James, Nsekanabo Lando Ali, Byaruhanga Nduwamungu Vianney were arrested by Uganda’s CMI from Bukasa and detained in Mbuya for three months till their release in November.
Rene Rutagungira was arrested on 6th August 2017 from Bakuri in Kampala and remains under custody till today.
“All these arrested people are subjected to torture and detained incommunicado and asked common questions such as their military background, their associates in Uganda and their involvement in kidnap of Rwandans,” a source said.
Recent media reports indicated of an existing scheme to fake kidnaps of Rwandan refugees reportedly committed by Kigali as a strategy of portraying Rwanda as a “hostile” state
As these arrests increase, a general fear of safety for Rwandans travelling to Uganda is growing by day. Many tend to alert family members, friends and officials whenever they travel to Uganda asking them to keep keen ‘eye’ just incase they suddenly disappear.
Contrary to the standards that guide arrests of foreigners, Rwandans detained by CMI are denied consular access from Rwandan diplomats and legal counsel. Since most are detained in ungazetted detention centers, Uganda’s Police force is usually unaware about these arrests.
As these continue illegal detentions escalate, sources say increased recruitment of Rwandans into rebel ranks for RNC continues unabated. Credible information obtained by this website shows that the recruitment drive is happening in refugee camps of Nyakivala, Kibale and Mubende with support from Uganda’s CMI.
During these recruitment visits to refuge camps, Rugema Kayumba, a former army corporal and cousin to fugitive Kayumba Nyamwasa does the mobilization propaganda while the entire recruitment scheme is supervised by CMI that provides the team with logistical support including security escorts.
RNC’s Rugema Kayumba re-located from his asylum home in Norway and now coordinates fugitive Kayumba Nyamwasa operations from Kampala where he’s a special guest of CMI.
“It is most likely that the arrests are being done to divert or cover-up the recruitment for RNC that is now in full gear in refugee camps accommodating Rwandans,” a highly placed intelligence source told this website.
Two RNC fugitives Maj. (rtd) Habib Mudathir and Capt (rtd) Sibo Charles left Rhino refugee camp in Arua facilitated by CMI to coordinate training for RNC recruits in Minebwe S.Kivu of DRC and prepare another training camp in West Nile of Uganda.
Credible information from intelligence sources say the two renegade ex-soldiers (Habib and Sibo) are trying but with limited success to mobilize retired RDF officers inside Rwanda, hoping to have them in RNC training camps.
Ngirente was speaking Sunday at the closing ceremony of the 16th Forum of youth from Catholic Church in Rwanda at Umuganda Stadium in Rubavu District.
The Forum attracted 5,000 youth from Catholic church and invitees from other churches in Rwanda and outside the country.
The forum aimed at fostering humanity among youth.
He said that youth take a big percentage of Africa’s population and should play a big role in its development.
“For the Government of Rwanda and African countries in general, youth have great value, they are the hope of today and tomorrow, they occupy the big number of Africans and have the potential to develop our continent,” he said.
“In Rwanda, 65% of population are below age 30, more capable than others to quickly acquire knowledge that would help us be a ‘Knowledge-based economy ‘,” he added.
He called on them to avoid bad behaviours like drunkardness, divisionism, laziness, coward and adultery among others that could lead to ruining their future
“We want you to be visionary and committed to contribute in all development activities. you should invest in learning and using ICT as a way to open doors for opportunities from inside and outside the country,” Ngirente urged youth.
Ngirente was speaking Friday while officiating the celebration of the International Anti-Corruption Day in Kigali.
He said the celebration of the day helps people from around the World reassess their efforts in fighting against corruption which he said continues to undermine the economy of many countries.
The 2017 East African Bribery Index, he said ranked Rwanda 5th in Sub-Saharan countries that invest much in fighting against corruption.
Ngirente said that more efforts are still needed to uproot all forms of graft.
“Though we celebrate progress in fighting against corruption, we are yet to reach our target. There are some institutions where corruption still appears. There are a number of people who are reluctant to reveal corruption cases,” he said.
He said that Advisory Councils from National, Districts, Sectors and cells level should involve fight against corruption in their programmes as provided by laws so they become the foundation of ending corruption.
“Ombudsman’s office will be empowered more so that they will be capable to monitor and collaborate activities aimed at fighting graft in all government institutions,” he said.
He said the government targets to empower particular bodies in criminal investigations and prosecution for fighting corruption.
The Ombudsman, Anastase Murekezi emphasized that there is a political will to end graft though it is still appearing in different institutions.
He said that some entrepreneurs engage corruption to win public tenders.
He cautioned against informal means of getting wealth saying that they should fight them everywhere.
Kagame was speaking Friday in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt in the official opening of the Africa Business Forum.
Kagame joined President Sisi El Fattah of Egypt,President Alpha Condé of Guinea and Chairperson of the African Unionand other Heads of State in the opening of the Forum.
The head of state commended President Sisi’s vision and foresight, in bringing all the regions of the continent together, in collaboration with Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to empower the youth through business and entrepreneurship.
“This reminds us, once again, of Egypt’s historic commitment to Africa’s independence and progress, and its unique role as a bridge between Africa, and the wider Middle East,” he said.
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“Africa’s future prosperity will be delivered, in large part, through inclusive private-sector growth; however, governments have a big role to play, to make that a reality,” he noted.
Kagame explained that by making it easier to do business within African countries,the continent has to catch up fast, and compete globally.
“We can’t afford to waste opportunities because of unnecessary red tape, and the associated delays,” he said
Kagame it will be achieved by making it easier to do business, with each other, in Africa, and integrating African markets, to make them more attractive for investment.
“This is why regional cooperation is becoming increasingly central to Africa’s future, as we see with the Tripartite Free Trade Area which joins COMESA, the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community,” he explained.
“The institutional reform of the African Union that is currently underway, with strong support from African leaders, is essential to getting these agreements fully operational, so that our citizens can enjoy the benefits,” he added.
He said putting information technology and broadband connectivity into the hands of young people; particularly entrepreneurs can help private sector growth.
“That is the logic behind the Smart Africa initiative, based in Kigali, with more than 20 Member States around the continent,” he said adding that prosperous economies are knowledge economies.
The yearly index by Turkish institution ‘University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP)’ inspected 2500 in over 27,000 universities from around the World.
They focus on lectures, researches conducted by universities and their quality and impact to communities.
Despite being ranked the 2287 UR has been ranked the 96th among 108 that was inspected in Africa.
The first on the list is Harvard University from United States of America followed by Toronto University from Canada and the Oxford University from United Kingdom, the third.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor in Charge of Institutional Advancement in UR, Dr. CharlesMuligande, recently said that research from which international ranking base on is developing in UR.
He said in 2013, UR used to publish below 300 peer review papers but in 2016, they released 644.
In 2016, the research released by Clarivate Analytics, a global research company shows that UR was the 2nd in East African Countries’ university with impactful research after Makerere University.
The magazine considers people whose work or activity has had some sort of transformative effect outside their main calling so that their effect results in a change of perception or provides inspiration to others.
The annual report sees different categories including politics and public service; business and finance; civil society and activism; education; science, technology and innovation; media; arts and culture; and sport – profiles both continental and Diasporan Africans nominated by their peers and industry insiders.
Kagame is among three Heads of State made it to the list. Others are Ghana’s Nana Akufo-Addoand President Alpha Conde of Guinea.
Nigeria’s Vice President YemiOsinbajo also made the list in the Politics and Public Service category for how he served as a safe pair of hands during President Buhari’s enforced absence for most part of 2017.
For the first time since the magazine began publishing this acclaimed end-of-year list five years ago, the 2017 list features 42 women out of the hundred, the highest number of female entries so far.
With 21 entries, Nigeria tops the nominations, closely followed by South Africa which scored 14 names. In total the list includes entries from 31 countries including 12 Francophone Africa.
Popular new entries include the Triplets Ghetto Kids dance troop from Uganda and Ghanaian born new Editor of British Vogue Edward Kobina Enninful, as well as new heavyweight boxing sensation Nigerian-British Anthony Joshua.
Leading business magnates AlikoDangote (Nigeria), Mohammed Dewji (Tanzania) make a return on the Business and Finance category, which also sees two names that have been media fodder this year, Angola’s Isabel dos Santos and Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais. This year also has more French and Arab speaking entries in this category.
However, perhaps as a sign of shifting interests and changing times in Africa, the Arts and Culture showbiz section has the highest number of entries and most of the new names. Making a return in this category is Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, who is joined by fresh faces such as Adwoa Aboah and the refreshing Hijab wearing Somali top model Halima Aden.
Surfacing in the Civic society and Activism category is a new breed of activists including those fighting for the routinely ignored yet important rights of people with disabilities in Africa. Nigeria’s Eros Ikponwosa – herself affected by albinism makes the list for her work with the UN Human Rights Commission in highlight the plight of people with albinism. With the raw and heartrending recent exposé of Libya’s Africans slave-trade, the entry of Mauritania’s anti-slavery hero Biram Dah Abeid in this category, is poignant.
“Our criteria for “influential” this year was a fairly simple one – it is applied to people whose work or activity has had some sort of transformative effect outside their main calling. This effect results in a change of perception or provides inspiration to others. Many in our selection have shattered the proverbial glass-ceilings or disability stigma and do so with great bravery, determination and personal sacrifice. Others yield economic power that impacts world markets,” explains AnverVersi, the magazine’s Editor.
“African talent in the arts, culture, sports and technology has also has a huge impact on changing the world’s perception towards Africa and its people,” he adds.
