Rudahunga who has been for long suffering from chronic illnesses died on Monday, Bishop Smaragde Mbonyintege has told IGIHE.
Rudahunga was ordained priest in 1953, being the 111th person to be ordained priest in Rwanda.
In a yet to be published exclusive interview with IGIHE, Rudahunga who held the honorary title of Bishop said he did so many works for the Catholic Church in Rwanda including Kabgayi Minor Seminar.
At 97, Bishop Eulade Rudahunga was the oldest priest in Rwanda.
Kagame who doubles as the Chairperson of the African Union made the remarks as he chaired the African Leadership Meeting on Investing in Health held in Addis Ababa ahead the 32nd African Union Summit.
The meeting has brought together African Heads of State and Government, business leaders and global health organisations to launch a new initiative designed to help deliver increased, sustained and more impactful financing for health across Africa.
In his remarks, Kagame said, “Investing in the health of our citizens has already had transformative effects on the people of our continent. But there is much more to do. We will get better results if we work together as a continent.”
“We also have a lot to learn from each other’s experiences implementing programmes such as universal health insurance, and community-based healthcare,” Kagame said.
According to the 2018 WHO Global Health Expenditure Database, only two out of the 55 AU Member States meet Africa’s target of dedicating at least 15% of the government budget to health and do not reach the suggested threshold of US$86.30 per person required to provide a basic package of health services.
Here, Kagame called on the governments to increase domestic investment in healthcare.
“Governments should surely be willing and able to increase domestic investment in healthcare. A good indicator of this is the progress we have made toward securing the financial health of the African Union and mobilising our own resources for joint priorities, such as the Peace Fund. We should be the first ones to contribute to efforts that directly benefit our people,” Kagame said.
“We are entering a period where most of the special health financing vehicles must replenish their resources. This creates the necessity—or rather the opportunity— for Africa to increase its ownership of the process. Together we can set an even more ambitious agenda for the next phase,” he emphasized.
Kagame also called on private companies to invest more in the business of healthcare in Africa.
“The private sector is the key to success. The role goes beyond taxes and philanthropy as central as those are. We also need to see the private sector investing more in the business of healthcare in Africa as service providers,” he said.
Kagame also noted that companies can also ensure their employees have high-quality, private health insurance coverage and this creates more demand in the market, and allows governments to focus on the most vulnerable.
Gen. James Kabarebe who now serves as President Paul Kagame’s Advisor on Security Matters has held several positions in the Rwandan army where he served as Rwanda’s Minister of Defence and Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) Chief of Defense Staff among other duties.
During the liberation struggle by the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) that later changed name to current Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), Kabarebe served as the Private Secretary of Maj. Gen Paul Kagame who was Head of RPF military wing (RPA) and later became the Commander of the High Command Unit at Mulindi.
In October 1990, RPF Inkotanyi launched an armed war to liberate Rwanda after several peaceful attempts to let Rwandan refugees repatriate that had ended in vain.
RPF Inkotanyi has been at different times accused of having carried out the attack on a plane that carried President Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994, a plane crash that was followed by the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi that left over a million lives lost.
Speaking to 500 youths who gathered at Kimisagara Youth Development Centre on a theme entitled ‘Rubyiruko Menya Amateka yawe loosely translating as “Youth, Know your history’’, Kabarebe said RPA soldiers were very much disciplined and had a great and genuine reason to fight which helped them win the struggle.
“RPF Inkotanyi armed forces were so disciplined that you would not imagine they were a rebel movement. You would have thought FAR [Rwanda Armed Force) which was the national army of Rwanda until 1994] was instead a rebel group due to its indiscipline and disorganization,” General Kabarebe said.
Kabarebe explained that RPF recognized the enemy of the country as the bad, corrupt and exclusive governance while Habyarimana’s regime said Rwanda’s enemy was all Tutsi.
“You can’t win a war against a force that fights to liberate Rwandans and develop the country while you fight to kill part of its citizens. Whatever ammunition you may have, whatever knowledge your army may have, you can’t win that struggle,” Kabarebe emphasized.
“RPF never fought to seize power. Some people say we won the war just because Habyarimana had died. This is false because if we wanted to take power first, we would have conquered the nation and take Habyarimana by hands. We were so strong that FAR could not stand our way,” he said.
{{Habyarimana was not a threat to RPF}}
Gen James Kabarebe told the youth RPF saw no interest in killing President Habyarimana as he was not a threat to their struggle.
“Habyarimana would come in CND [Parliamentary premises] where many RPF soldiers lived but they never shot at him despite the fact that he was guarded by his junior guards. If RPF soldiers had wanted to kill him, they would have done it at CND,” Kabarebe explained.
Kabarebe urged the youths to keep a watchful eye and fight any kind of divisionism that can take Rwanda back to dark moments it went through.
Despite allegations that the plane that carried President Habyarimana was shot down by RPF, the French intelligence document recently revealed that Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, who was Chief in Defence Ministry and Laurent Serubuga, a former Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces were instigators of the April 1994 plane attack.
According to a statement released yesterday by the Ministry of Defense, all the 16 officers promoted graduated from the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University in Sri Lanka.
The corporals skipped six ranks while those promoted from the rank of private skipped seven ranks up to the rank of Lieutenant.
The 16 officers promoted to the rank of Lieutenant join other 663 RDF officers whose promotion from the rank of second-Lieutenant to Lieutenant was approved by the cabinet meeting in August 8, last year.
During a press conference in Kampala, Fred Mukasa Mbidde, who is also the DP Vice President, condemned what he called “inhumane incarceration of innocent Rwandan nationals as retribution for Kigali’s deeds.”
He advised security institutions to have utmost respect for human rights in the course of handling criminal suspects and advised Uganda People’s Defence Force [UPDF] to cease targeting citizens of the East African community, particularly the Rwandan nationals which is against known protocols on human rights including the treaty for the establishment of the East African Community.
Mbidde said the party was aware of at least 13 Rwandan nationals who are languishing in various detention centers across the country.
The detained Rwandans listed by Mbidde include Rene Rutagungira, who was arrested from a bar in Kampala in August 2017, Emmanuel Rwamucyo and Peter Augustin Rutayisire who were arrested last year for alleged espionage.
Mbidde went on to call on the Ugandan government, to iron out its differences with Kigali, whose effects he said could be catastrophic to the regional integration process.
“It is therefore demanded that government explains the general relationship between Rwanda and Uganda in very certain terms. The prisoners, all civilians are released from the court martial and if suspected of offences be charged in civil courts with a possibility of obtaining bail to look after their families”, he is quoted by a Ugandan online media, Chimpreports.