Archive for the ‘Rwanda News’ Category
Premier urges Diaspora to participate in polls
Premier urges Diaspora to participate in polls
By Eric Kabeera
KAMPALA – Prime Minister Bernard Makuza has called on Rwandans in the Diaspora to turn up for the upcoming Presidential elections slated for next month, saying that it’s their fundamental right to participate in their country’s programmes.
The Premier made the call in an exclusive interview with The New Times on the sidelines of the African Union Summit where he represented President Paul Kagame.
“Participation of the Rwandan Diaspora in the elections, I am sure, will strengthen our governance and democracy which will lead to development…and voting is a right that no one can deny them. It’s their responsibility as Rwandans to participate in the development of their nation,” he said
“They should go to their respective embassies in their countries and cast votes”.
He castigated reports that the forthcoming polls would not be free and fair, adding that those claiming so should provide evidence to substantiate their statements.
“We are going to have free and fair elections…as we speak now, all candidates are campaigning freely, and they have been given equal coverage by the media.
Meanwhile, in the same interview, Makuza spoke of the thousands of Rwandan refugees living in several countries, saying that the country has an obligation of assessing the living conditions of its nationals living in various countries.
“It’s our obligation as Rwanda to know the conditions of our people, whether they are living miserable lives or not, whether they are causing conflicts in their host countries… we are responsible for all that,” he said.
He therefore appealed to refugees to repatriate, saying that Rwanda is peaceful and would provide the necessary logistics possible to facilitate them return home.
Diaspora remittances hit $172.4m
Diaspora remittances hit $172.4m
By Berna Namata
Rwandans living and working abroad are increasingly sending money back home with total remittances last year rising sharply by 23.2 percent despite the negative impact of the global recession.
Remittances have been increasing since 2005 from$42.85million to $139.89 million in 2008, accelerating further to reach $172.40 million last year, statistics from the Diaspora General Directorate under the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicate.
The data is collected from commercial banks, money transfer agents like Western Union, Money Gram , MoneyTrans and other informal transfers.
“We have realized that as more companies are allowed to transfer funds the figure has been increasing because initially it was only Western Union. The increase also shows the trust and confidence Rwandans in Diaspora have in their economy,” Ambassador Claver Gatete, the Vice Governor told Business Times in a phone interview on Tuesday commenting on the figures.
With that several government initiatives targeting Rwandans abroad being introduced, Vice Governor said was optimistic that the positive trend would continue.
“Most of them are sending money for investment and some have also approached us requesting to participate in Treasury Bills,” he said.
To encourage and ease repatriation of funds, Gatete said the Central Bank will license more companies involved in money transfer business.
“We are also ready to help them give them information that can assist them to make decisions (investment),” added.
Last year the Rwandan Diaspora together with the National Bank of Rwanda (NBK) finalised plans to establish an investment fund the Rwandan Diaspora Mutual Fund (RDMF) which was adopted by the 2008 Diaspora Retreat.
After its establishment, the Mutual Fund will be invested in treasury bonds, guaranteed by BNR and at a later stage the interest gained from the bonds will be invested in higher risk products such as corporate
bonds and stocks.
However it is also expected that the fund will be invested abroad in the long run, to earn more interest which will then be repatriated back to Rwanda.
Currently the Diaspora has actively involved in community development projects including the One Dollar Campaign and recently launched “Bye Bye Nyakatsi”— a project that aims at constructing modern houses and phasing out grass thatched houses in the country.
Diaspora remittances have become a key foreign exchange earner for Africa with about $5 billion released every twelve months.
Mother of triplets appeals for help
By Stephen Rwembeho
RWAMAGANA - Athanasia Niyigena, a resident of Gahengeri Sector, Rwamagana District, who on Thursday delivered triplets, is appealing to well wishers to come to her aid.
“We are happy to have the three children, but we are worried because we can’t feed them. My husband and I are too poor…we earn our living by working for others-we don’t even have a house of our own,” said the Niyigena, a first time mother.
She delivered at Gahegeri Health Center, before being transferred to Rwamagana Hospital.
“We expected one child. God has really put us to test, and unless we get help, we just can’t manage the children. I thus appeal to the government, NGOs, and others for aid.”
Just like the parents, the birth was a surprise to the doctors.
“It’s a surprise,” said Dr. William Rutagengwa, a general practitioner overseeing the development of babies at Rwamagana Hospital.
“The three newborns are in stable condition and they are doing quite well.”
According to Dr Rutagengwa, the smallest baby weighed just 1.5 kg, while the biggest weighed 2kg at birth.
“We are treating them as premature babies mainly due to their weight…but we expect them to be discharged soon. We are closely monitoring them,” he said.
Francoise Ingabire, a midwife, added her voice, calling for well wishers to assist the mother.
“You see our work will end as soon as doctors deem them fit to go home. The woman is poor just like the father. So, well wishers can think of helping them,” she said.
http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14331&article=31707
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Invitation to visit Rwanda Museums
July 14, 2010
Dear Sir/Madam,
VISIT YOUR MUSEUMS, KNOW AND ENJOY YOUR HERITAGE:
As the new Director General of the National Museums of Rwanda I would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to visit your museums and enjoy your heritage. You may not know that we have a total of six museums in Rwanda, all offering an interesting experience to visitors where they can learn about Rwanda and its extensive heritage.
They are:
- Natural History Museum Nyarugenge in Kigali
- Art Museum in Nyanza
- Kanombe Museum (formerly Presidential Palace in Kigali
- Ancient History Museum in Nyanza
- Social History Museum in Butare (also known as the National Museum of Rwanda)
- Environmental -museum in Karongi
All museums are open from 7:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Sunday. I or one of my team would be happy to show you around, just get in touch and we can accommodate you.
For more information you can also refer to our website www.museum.gov.rw
I hope you will visit one of the museums soon.
Yours sincerely,
Alphonse Umuliisa
Director General
National Museums of Rwanda
Email: abumuliisa@yahoo.com
Tel : +250 788 304806
Diaspora to vote on August 8
Diaspora to vote on August 8
By Charles Kwizera
Rwandans in the Diaspora will cast their votes a day earlier in the August Presidential polls, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), has revealed.
According to NEC Executive Secretary, Charles Munyaneza, the commission has set August 8 as the voting day for the Diaspora, to enable Rwandans overseas to have ample time to travel to their respective polling centres, which will mainly be diplomatic missions.
Presidential elections are slated for August 9.
“August 8 will fall on Sunday, which is favourable for people in Diaspora. The voting day here will be a public holiday in Rwanda which will not be the case in other countries,” said Munyaneza.
NEC expects the number of voters in Diaspora to double once registration is over.
“We have so far registered close to 20,000 voters from the Diaspora and we hope the number will increase since we are still registering,” added Munyaneza.
Close to 16,000 Rwandans abroad participated in the parliamentary elections that took place in 2008.
The commission also has plans to open up more than one polling station in large countries and to also establish new ones in countries where Rwanda does not have diplomatic representations.
Rwanda currently has a total of 20 diplomatic missions.
http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=14295&article=30391
Rwanda refused to be written- UK envoy
Rwanda refused to be written off; UK envoy
By Ignatius Mugabo
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.jpg "High Commissioner to UK Ernest Rwamucyo delivering his speech at the commemoration. (Photo/ Patrice Gateja)")
High Commissioner to UK Ernest Rwamucyo delivering his speech at the commemoration. (Photo/ Patrice Gateja)
LONDON - The Rwandan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ernest Rwamucyo, has said that his country refused to be written off as a failed state after being devastated by the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
He was addressing a Genocide commemoration service at Southwark Cathedral in London on Wednesday April 7, at the start of commemoration events around the United Kingdom.
16 years after the most brutal and horrific Genocide in modern history, Rwamucyo said, there is total economic and social transformation underway in Rwanda, and the country symbolises the dawn of a bright future on the African continent.
The visibly saddened audience of over 500 people consisting of diplomats, members of UK’s House of Lords and House of Commons, members of Rwandan Diaspora Community and friends of Rwanda, listened attentively as Rwanda’s top diplomat in London painted a picture of a country that has defied all odds to emerge as a beacon of hope in an otherwise hopeless part of the world.
Rwamucyo gave the audience a graphic description of what happened to his country during 100 dark days 16 years ago; the indiscriminate killing of babies, the young, elderly and the weak; killed because they were born Tutsi – something they had no decision over at the time of their birth.
He added that the people and the government of Rwanda are determined to build a better society full of hope and opportunity for all. He said Rwanda is now an active member of both regional and international communities, following admission into the East African Community and the Commonwealth.
The High Commissioner condemned the international community “including the most powerful countries on the face of the earth” for abandoning Rwandans at their greatest hour of need, and saluted the men and women of Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) who single-handedly brought the killings to an end and established order in the country”.
He called upon all nations to arrest and try Genocide perpetrators who are still freely roaming the world, especially in Europe and North America, or send them to Rwanda for trial.
Rwamucyo used the opportunity to commend the government of the United Kingdom for amending the Coroner’s and justice Act which came into effect on April 6 and has retrospective effect, allowing for the trial of Genocide fugitives in the UK, if they are not extradited to Rwanda.
The commemoration service was conducted by The Very Reverend Colin Slee, Dean of Southwark Cathedral, assisted by The Reverend Malachie Munyaneza and Bishop Jonathan Ruhumuriza.
In his sermon, Slee congratulated Rwanda on its admission to the Commonwealth late last year, revealing that a Genocide monument is to be erected at Southwark Square, to remember the victims and to ‘cement the relationship between this church and Rwandan people’.
The service was also addressed by renowned Rwanda Genocide researcher and author Linda Melvern, who narrated how on the 7th of April 1994, the elite para-commando unit of the former Rwandan army was assigned certain areas in Kigali with orders to kill everyone who carried a Tutsi identity card.
She described the “total destruction of humans and infrastructure” throughout the country, giving numbers and locations of where Tutsi victims were killed.
After the commemoration service, the UK Rwanda Genocide Memorial Project was launched by its Chairperson the Rt. Hon. Baroness Linda Chalker of Wallasey and Reverend Colin Slee.
The project has among its patrons, Baroness Chalker, Archbishop Desmond Tutu President Paul Kagame, Dr Chai Patel of Bright Future Trust, Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba, Deputy Secretary General of the Commonwealth and many other prominent personalities.
The Genocide Commemoration events continue around the UK with services planned in Birmingham, Newcastle, Reading and Manchester.
Reported in The New Times
Myths on Rwandan Media
By Louise Mushikiwabo
Posted: March 24, 2010 12:10 PM Huffington Post
A free press and the free flow of information are essential to Rwanda’s vision of a country of empowered citizens, in a dynamic knowledge economy.
In Rwanda we are fortunate to have a vibrant radio industry; 19 radio stations in a country of ten million, mostly privately owned. But making one’s way in print journalism is tough in a country where radio is king and where there has been little culture of reading. Low levels of readership means low advertising revenues, which means high cover prices which, it turn, results in low levels of readership — a self perpetuating cycle. The journalists who act as publisher, editor and reporter for their papers face a daily struggle to get their paper on the street.
As our country develops and becomes more educated and prosperous some of these dedicated journalists will find things getting easier. Until then, the government is supporting media development by providing training through the Great Lakes Media Centre, where working journalists with little or no formal training have the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills relevant to their careers.
Certainly, part of the reason for the lack of training, professionalism and low level of ethics in the media is the fact that attention to this sector was not a priority immediately following the genocide. I mention all this because according to some observers, the main challenge journalists’ face in Rwanda is not economic, and cultural but political. Time and time again we are told that in Rwanda there is no media freedom, no space for comment, no room for criticism.
It is incredible how far from reality this is. Whether in the electronic or printed media, Rwandans have at their disposal every day a wide range of news and opinions, from pro-government voices to persistently hostile and sometimes abusive views. A cursory glance through the pages of Rwandan newspapers will show how loud the independent press screams out criticism – a snapshot of the current situation in Rwanda’s media can be found on the government website. In the last few weeks the press has accused the government of creating insecurity for political reasons, harassing the opposition, corruption, nepotism, of manipulating the justice system, employing criminals etc.
It is not comfortable for me to repeat these unfair criticisms — it is the exact opposite of my job as government spokesperson — but I do because it is there in black and white for people to see that journalists have freedom to criticize. Political opponents of the current administration inside and outside Rwanda air their voices many times a day on radios that broadcast in almost every village in Kinyarwanda, the language understood by even the most modest citizens.
My government is working relentlessly to expand access for Rwandans to broadband internet, including in rural areas. This will permit them to download faster those reports denouncing their restrained access to information. In Kigali’s bookstores, citizens and visitors will find any book on Rwanda they want in English, French or Kinyarwanda, even those written by authors who claim that their voices cannot be heard inside the country. New releases, including those bitterly opposing the government, are often first popularized in the country before they become internationally known.
Some professional critics refuse to understand that Rwanda has moved on. They ignore or try to conceal the robustness of debate in the media in Kinyarwanda. They also ignore the fact that occasionally journalists commit crimes as private individuals, crimes unconnected to their work, for which they are held to account by the legal process, just as any citizen would.
It is important to note that despite our tragic past and even with the laws prohibiting hate media that fueled the destruction of the country (laws, by the way, like those adopted in other countries, following similar periods of violence, that today are widely seen as strongly democratic), for more than three years my government has not leveled any action against individual journalists or media house for an opinion. When a journalist writes that a section of the population should go back to ‘where they come from before they disappear’ like one did in February 2007, echoing almost word for word the hate media that fueled the genocide, we make no apologies for acting. Debate and dissent is essential to Rwanda’s future. Irresponsible journalism must remain a part of our past.
On the ground, the situation and the performance of media in Rwanda is steadily improving but this trend needs to and should be accelerated through further improvement in professional standards, removal of barriers to investment, and strengthening of the capacity and confidence of our journalists. At the same time, it is essential that people understand that our critics make accusations in a vacuum, with little regard for the role of media in historical atrocities. As media in Rwanda evolves, we are working diligently to ensure freedom of expression and speech with the highest standards of journalistic ethics is part of our country’s bright future.
Louise Mushikiwabo is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Government Spokesperson.
NEC urgues Diaspora to vote
February 27th, 2010
By Edmund Kagire KIGALI – The National Electoral Commission (NEC) is sensitising Rwandans living in the Diaspora to take part in the 2010 Presidential polls. Charles Munyaneza, the NEC Executive Secretary and Oswald Burasanzwe, member of the NEC board of commissioners, are in South Africa to brief Rwandans living in the country, especially in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town on the polls. The one week tour of duty in the Republic of South Africa that started on February 22, 2010 will be concluded on February 27, 2010. Officials from NEC also recently travelled to Uganda and Tanzania, countries that host a large number of Rwandans. Similar tours will be conducted in other countries that host considerable numbers of Rwandans including Burundi, Kenya, India, USA, Canada and other countries in Europe. NEC is set to announce the list of candidates contesting for the presidential seat on July 7 while the candidate’s registration exercise will run from June 24 to July 2. Currently the commission is compiling voters’ lists, and from March 3 to March 21, the lists will be sent to the local levels for further verification. The final list of voters will be announced on July 23. Ends
NEC engages Diaspora
| BY ERIC KABEERA | |
| KAMPALA – The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has kicked off a campaign of sensitizing the Rwandan Diaspora on the forthcoming presidential polls slated for August, 2010.
The exercise that kicked off recently in Kampala, Uganda saw the commission’s Executive of Secretary, Charles Munyaneza briefing the Rwandans residing in Uganda on the August polls. Commission has also visited Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and other countries to connect with the Rwandan Diaspora community. Speaking to The New Times, Munyaneza said that the sensitization campaign will help to solve some problems that the Diaspora faces during elections. “We have decided to come to Uganda with the aim of educating all who are to engage in election to avoid inconveniences which might occur.” During the three day visit, the duo met with Rwandan students and other Rwandans residing and working in Uganda. The first councilor at Rwandan High Commission in Kampala, Daniel Mutezintale called on the community to come forward and register at the embassy to avoid last minute rush. Reported in the New Times |
Kagame receives C’wealth SG
| BY EDMUND KAGIRE | |
| URUGWIRO VILLAGE - President Paul Kagame yesterday received the visiting Commonwealth Secretary-General (SG), Kamalesh Sharma, at Urugwiro Village, two months after the country was admitted as the 54th member.
Addressing the press shortly after the meeting, Sharma, who said he was proud to be the first Commonwealth SG to visit Rwanda after its admission. He disclosed that during discussions with the President, they focussed on a number of areas where the organization will be partnering with Rwanda to foster development. “I am here as the first Secretary-General to welcome Rwanda into the Commonwealth, and it is a very historic moment. All of us are relishing this moment,” he said “We had very substantive discussions on where we can both give value to each other. The tremendous achievements of this country will be of great benefit to the organisation, to the members”. He added that the Commonwealth being a value-based organisation, and one that moves on a wide front, there is a lot of scope that ‘naturally’ exists between the two (Rwanda and the Commonwealth) and that it was ‘quite easy’ to draw lines along which they will operate. “The next step now is for the formal ceremony that will take place in the month of March in London for the installation of the flag of Rwanda and on Commonwealth day, I look forward to receiving the President,” Sharma said. He noted that the main areas of cooperation will be governance and human resource development. According to Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo, the talks were also meant to initiate Rwanda into the group and how it can work with existing member states in the areas of economy, education, youth, ICT and trade. She noted that despite Rwanda being two months old into the body, the country was chosen to host the Commonwealth Youth Conference to be held September this year. Reported in the New Times |