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KENYA, RWANDA and UGANDA have reaffirmed their commitment for the fight against genocide during the Ministerial meeting of Peace and Security cluster for the Northern corridor Integrated Projects (NCIP).the meeting directed that member states designate April 7 as a day to joint Rwandans in commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi which claimed more than one million innocent lives.

This is one of the resolutions adopted on May 22 in Nairobi, Kenya, in a meeting chaired by Rwanda’s Minister for Internal Security, Sheikh Musa Fazil Harerimana.

South Sudan attended as an observer.

The meeting also attended by the Inspector General of Rwanda National Police, Emmanuel K. Gasana, was convened to review the progress of the implementation of the ‘Mutual Peace and Security Pact.’

The meeting also directed that member states will have to take measures to domesticate all relevant international legal instruments related to genocide prevention .

Prevention of genocide is among the key areas of cooperation under the pact. Others include conflict prevention, management and resolution, combating terrorism and suppressing piracy.

In his opening remarks, Minister Harerimana noted that the region is currently confronted with serious security threats like terrorism, trafficking in persons, piracy and cybercrime.

“The meeting on peace and security is timely to collectively identify strategies to ensure rapid response as directed by Heads of State,” he said.

In line with responding to threats posed by terrorism, bloc members resolved to fast-track the implementation of the decisions of the East African Community Chiefs of Police adopted in Kampala, Uganda, aimed at strengthening border security management and formulate strategies to counter violent extremism.

In February last year, Presidents of Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda, during a tripartite summit in Kampala, signed the ‘Mutual Peace and Security’ pact with the aim of strengthening the Northern Corridor Integration Projects.

The Northern Corridor is an initiative aimed at fast tracking regional development through joint infrastructure, trade, political and economic for greater integration process.

The Head of States then directed Chiefs of services from the three East African Community (EAC) bloc members to develop a framework that will fast-track the implementation of the pact.

Security services from the three countries have since established committees of intelligence, police, immigration and correctional services among others to spearhead the implementation of key areas of cooperation to promote and maintain stability for the development of the Northern Corridor.

The ‘Joint Intelligence Centre’ was also officially launched on Friday in Nairobi on sideline of the meeting.

Other areas of cooperation include Peace Support Operations, disaster risk reduction, management and response, management of refugees, control of proliferation of illicit arms and light weapons, combating financial, organized and cross-border crimes such as human and drug trafficking, money laundering and cyber crimes and correctional services including exchange of prisoners, detention, custody and rehabilitation of offenders.

Dr. David Himbara, a Former economic aid to President Paul Kagame was exposed by a fellow witness who said in his testimony that Dr. Himbara, who works as a “human rights advocate and good governance consultant”, personally, hired a top-tier DC lobbying firm in August 2014 to tarnish Rwanda’s image as well as its governance, IGIHE exclusively reports

The witness said Dr Himbara paid them $70,000 in the first quarter of this year, and a total of $190,000 since the contract started.

Willis Shalita told the U.S. House of Representative during a hearing on Development in Rwanda that a lot of money is being spent to circulate disinformation about Rwanda to decision makers and opinion-makers in the United States of America.

Willis Shalita is an American and proud Rwandan who lived in Exile in Uganda and later became a U. S citizen.

Willis Shalita works as a writer, through a weekly blog on social and political developments in America and Africa, with a particular focus on Rwanda.

Willis Shalita believes that this malicious political campaign weakens the strong bilateral relationship between Rwanda and America, which would ironically make the U.S. less effective as a trusted partner accompanying Rwanda towards its highest goals.

“People have a right to do that, provided they follow the rules. But I for one am curious to know who is bankrolling it. How else can the credibility of any claims that emerge from this shadowy network be assessed?” He asked

Earlier this Week a network of senior members of the Rwandan National Congress (RNC), whose leaders openly state their commitment to the violent overthrow of the Rwandan government and the assassination of its president and have even resorted to collaborating with the FDLR, a terrorist organization made up of the remnants of the groups responsible for the Genocide, circulated information about the organized debate with the aim of attacking Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.

The event took place on 20th May 2015, and among people who gave their testimony include Dr David Himbara, a former top economic aide to Kagame, Robert Higiro, a former Rwandan army major who fled the country; Robert Jackson, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs; Sarah Margon, Washington Director for Human Rights Watch; Steven Feldstein, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; and Willis Shalita, a photojournalist and blogger.

On the other side of the campaign, the RNC and affiliates have launched a website whose role is to attack Rwanda’s Government.

The website was registered only about a week ago, on May 13, 2015 before the organized debate on Rwanda to take place.

Willis asked “How is it that some of the very people who once proudly contributed to Rwanda’s success, now calmly assert that stats are fake, foreign eyewitnesses are dupes, and Rwanda is some kind of tropical North Korea? And why does anyone believe them, when the mountain of contrary evidence is so high? The answer is simpler than I thought: politics and money.”

READ Willis Testimony Here

Burundi’s government will not take revenge against those involved in last week’s failed coup, President Pierre Nkurunziza’s office has said.

Those implicated would be brought to justice in accordance with the rule of law, it added in a statement.

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has called for Burundi’s presidential election to be indefinitely postponed.

Protests are continuing in the capital, Bujumbura, against Mr Nkurunziza’s third-term bid.

The presidential poll is due to be held on 26 June. Mr Nkurunziza has so far refused to bow to pressure to postpone it.

Several alleged leaders of the coup attempt have been arrested but Gen Godefroid Niyombare, who announced it in a radio broadcast last Wednesday, remains on the run.

Mr Nkurunziza’s office said the government did “not have and will never have a plan for revenge that we are reading and hearing about in various places”.

“The people involved in the shameful attempt to overthrow legitimate institutions will be arrested and prosecuted by the law and only by the law. And it will be up to the courts to determine their punishment as prescribed by the law,” it added.

On Monday, Mr Nkurunziza sacked three cabinet ministers, including the defence minster.

His office denied that the decision was linked to the coup attempt.

The UN refugee agency says that more than 105,000 people have fled Burundi into neighbouring countries.

Source: BBC