Author: b_igi_adm1n

The young lady ‘Lulu’(red dress) suspected of having a hand in the death of Tanzania’s film superstar several weeks ago, appeared before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dare salaam Monday for preliminary hearing amidst tight security.

Lulu, whose true names are Elizabeth Michael aged 17, also an actress, is charged with the murder of film star Steven Kanumba.

Six prison officers guarding Elizabeth had a difficult time as they made their way to the courtroom through a crowd of anxious members of the public and journalists who thronged court corridors hours before she was brought in.

At this stage of the case, a magistrate will hear the case to determine if Lulu should be tried for the crime she is charged with, based on whether there is substantial evidence that she committed the crime, before the case goes to the High Court.

She would not be allowed to enter any plea since the lower court has no jurisdiction to hear a murder case.

It emerged Monday that a team of prominent lawyers including an official of the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG) and former president of Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) Joaquina De-Mello have came to the defence of the young actress.

United States Embassy this year awarded De Mello the 2011 Tanzania Women of Courage Award in recognition of her efforts to promote equality, opportunity and justice for Tanzanian women and girls.

Others are Mr Kennedy Fungamtama who has successfully been representing Dowans Tanzania in a $94million case against state power company Tanesco and TLS vice president Peter Kibatala as well as Mr Fulgence Massawe from the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC).

The late star’s girlfriend, Lulu, is believed to have pushed him to his death during a particularly heated argument between the two lovebirds at midnight on April 7, 2012 this year at Sinza Vatican.

State Attorney Elizabeth Kaganda informed the court that investigations into the case have not been completed and asked for the court to set another date for the case. Magistrate Rita Tarimo adjourned the case to May 5.

Unlike a fortnight ago when Lulu appeared calm and composed on her first appearance in court, yesterday tears flowed freely from her eyes.

Donned in a red long gown, Lulu appeared panicky and in a tense mood. She soon started crying, something that forced the magistrate and prison officers to repeatedly console her.

Fire has gutted a mattress factory commonly known as Kigali Foam. The incidence happened Monday evening. The cause of the fire hasn’t been established yet.

The factory belonging to Mutangana Jean Baptiste is located at Gikondo at Parc Industriel in Kicukiro district. Mutangana is also proprietor of another factory Volta Super.

IGIHE reporter who was at the scene by the time of inferno said the fire fighters arrived at the scene on time and prevented fire from attacking the nearby factory Volta Super.

The African Union has demanded for a complete cessation of all hostilities and the immediate resumption of the AUHIP-led negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan.

The Chairperson of Commission of the African Union (AU), Jean Ping instructed Sudan and south Sudan to end the senseless fighting and fully implement the security commitments they have entered into, and resume, under the auspices of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), the negotiations on their post secession relations.

He noted, “Recourse to force will never bring about a lasting solution to the issues at hand. The peoples of Sudan and South Sudan need to leave in peace with one another and to cooperate, as their destinies are intertwined.”

Both Parties need to exercise the much needed statesmanship and to be driven by a vision that takes into account the long term interests of their countries and peoples, as well as by their responsibility towards the region, the rest of Africa and the larger international community.

The Chairperson of the Commission reiterates AU’s request for Sudan and South Sudan to immediately implement the security agreements that they have reached under the facilitation of the AUHIP, with the support of IGAD and the United Nations, particularly the Decision of the Joint Political and Security Mechanism (JPSM) of 18 September 2011, which, inter alia, established the Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mission (JBVMM).

It should be noted that UN Security resolution 2024(2011) of 14 December 2011 has mandated the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) to support the JBVMM.

The Chairperson of the Commission stresses the need for both Parties to refrain from inflammatory statements which not only complicate the current and delicate situation, but also undermine the prospects for brotherly relations between the two states and their peoples.

Such statements run contrary to the principles on the basis of which the two countries agreed to resolve the post-secession issues.

A strong East African Standby Force is expected to start operations in 2015 after being established in 2013.

It’s against this background that today April 23, Rwanda Defense Force is hosting a meeting of 11 countries from the Eastern Africa region, to discuss about appropriate logistics required for the regional force EASF meant to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts in the region.

In a meeting held at Sports View Hotel- Kigali, members of the military forces from 11 countries are discussing how the combined force will be managed determining its budget and logistics needed.

Colonel Al Said Omar, from Djibouti -the chief of Staff in the activities of forming this Force said, the force will be meant to Prevent, manage, and solve conflicts but mainly treat the crisis beforehand, at any occurrence, in the region.

In his remarks, Major General Jacques Musemakweri, noted that he understands the shortage of logistics that occurred during a Field Training Exercise in Khartoum in 2011.

However, he added that The region is undertaking workshops of this kind as a result of the recommendations that were made during the after Action Review of the Field Training Exercise.

Maj. Gen. Musemakweri also said, “Some difficulties and challenges of course may arise but it is worth nothing that we will get through them as a region.”

Rwanda is slated to benefit from Israel assistance aimed at addressing the issue of food security.

International development agencies in Israel and America last week signed a memorandum of understanding to increase cooperation on food aid to Africa.

The MOU allows for closer cooperation on the issue of food security in four countries: Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda.

The assistance will include help with food production and crop cycles, as well as addressing environmental issues that go beyond the agricultural sector.

The MOU between USAID and Mashav (the Israel Agency for International Development Cooperation in the Foreign Ministry) was the first of its kind, according to Mashav head Daniel Carmon, “this MOU is not the start of the relationship; it’s the continuing and the strengthening of the relationship.”

Carmon noted that development – alongside diplomacy and security – was one of the pillars of Israel’s foreign policy and said that increasing cooperation with USAID was not only “the right thing to do but the smart thing to do.”

Former UN secretary General Kofi Annan faces yet again the the shadow of past international failures in Bosnia and Rwanda as efforts to deal with Syria’s President Bashar Assad continue to get problematic.

Annan, who is expected to brief the Security Council about the Syria crisis again on Tuesday, was head of the UN peacekeeping department from 1993 to 1996 – the dark years of the Bosnia war and the Rwanda genocide.

The butchering of 8 000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995 “will forever haunt the history of the United Nations”, he once said. Annan also said he could have “done more” to stop the slaughter of 800 000 people in Rwanda in 1994.

Senior diplomats quote the former UN secretary general as saying he is determined to avoid a repetition of those failures.

“These are episodes which have marked his life,” said one UN diplomat who has had contact with Annan over the Syria mission.

Praise

“If someone fires on the observers or there are massacres, it will not be like Bosnia – we will not act as though nothing has happened,” the diplomat quoted Annan as saying.

“Annan considers that his main weapon in this showdown is his prestige, his credibility, and he could lose that if there are one or two or three ceasefires which don’t work, as there was in Bosnia,” added a western envoy.

“There is a certain déjà vu quality” to the war in Syria, Annan’s spokesperson, Ahmad Fawzi, told US media chain McClatchy Newspapers last week. Annan, like the UN-backed negotiators in Bosnia, cannot order force if Assad does not keep his commitments.

The UN-Arab League envoy is earning praise for the way he has kept the international powers behind the six-point peace plan agreed with Assad – while at the same time keeping pressure on the Syrian leader.

But the UN envoys who in public have spoken so strongly in favour of Annan are now wondering how much longer his mission can go on and what future action can be taken.

The UN Security Council voted on Saturday to send 300 unarmed observers to Syria to monitor a fragile ceasefire. But the US has already said it may not support the renewal of the mission after the first 90-day mandate.

The US, Britain and France have called for sanctions if the observers cannot work. That will put them on a collision course with Russia, Syria’s last major ally, which fiercely opposes sanctions.

Dim prospects

“I’m sure it’s going to be a lengthy, painful and difficult process, but there is no alternative. The alternative is a further deterioration of the situation, further bloodshed,” said Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin when appealing for all countries to “work very doggedly in support of Kofi Annan”.

Given the dim prospects for the observer mission and the likelihood that Russia would veto any UN sanctions, many western capitals are already asking – what next?

“Annan is a prisoner of his own mediation. He is not likely to say, ‘I am stopping because of Syria’,” the UN diplomat said.

“There has to be a time when we say, ‘Mr Annan, it is not working.’ But the question is when? We cannot say that the Annan mission has failed as long as we have not gone to the end of the road. That will be a political decision,” the diplomat added.

Tony Blair, the international Middle East conflict mediator and former British prime minister, says that efforts to reach a negotiated solution have to be given a chance.

He told CBS television that he does not expect to see foreign troops in Syria.

“But I do expect that if Assad reneges on his commitments and they carry on killing the civilians, then I think we will see a gradual build-up of additional actions like corridors that allow help to get in, possibly secure zones that will protect the Syrian people and Syrian refugees.”

A senior UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all these ideas are being considered in “contingency plans” – along with the best ways to get UN observers out of Syria in a hurry.

Wire Story

Rwanda National Police has instructed motorcycle Taxi operators to supply head covers to passengers to wear under helmets or face disciplinary action for failure to protect passengers from skin related diseases.

The instruction was issued by Chief Superintendent Celestin Twahirwa, the Traffic Police commander to more than 1000 motorcyclists while meeting them at the Nyamirambo Stadium on Saturday.

“The Ministry of Health clearly states that no passenger should board a motorcycle without a smart cover in order to be protected from skin infections that could arise from sharing the helmet,” CSP Twahirwa said.

“If we all agree that these smart covers are really important, you must from now on adopt and use them to avoid police disturbing you” CSP Twahirwa added.

Mayor of Kigali City, Fidele Ndayisaba, “We have procured companies that provide headgears for as little as Frw 39 therefore they should be not sold for more than Frw 40,” Mayor Ndayisaba said.

Smart cover headgears were introduced late last year, by the Ministry of Health initiative to prevent people from contracting skin diseases from sharing helmets.

Police in Kayonza district has arrested Ndagijimana Théogène 32 found in posession with fake Rwandan currency notes worth Frw 102,000.

The suspect is currently held at Mukarange police station.

Ndagijimana was arrested after a tip off from residents when he attempted to buy phone credit using a fake paper note of Frw 1000.

Police later discovered Eight fake paper notes of Frw5000, four fake paper notes of Frw2000 and 54 fake paper notes of Frw1000.

Ndagijimana told police that he was given fake currency money worth Frw 102000 by Hakizamungu James in return for genuine Frw60,000.

“I acquired this money with full knowledge that it was fake and I intended to make quick profit. I had planned to purchase small items which I would resell and make genuine money”.

The Police spokesperson Supt. Theos Badege urged citizens to refain from indulging in such illegal activities saying fake money harms the economy.

Prisoners at Karubanda prison in Huye District have cited among others the problem of spouses of some prisoners (wives or husbands) who allegedly mismanage their property back home.

This was during the visit at Karubanda prison by Huye district officials who were at the facility to assess prisoners’ problems but also to find solutions.

This was agreed during the district security meeting held in Karubanda prison, to talk about prisoners’ problems and find solutions to them.

Executive Secretaries of all sectors in Huye district, the Army and Police engaged in discussions aimed at finding solutions to prisoners’ problems Karubanda prison facility.

Kayiranga Muzuka Eugene, the mayor of Huye district promised district intervention and find a solution.

Prisoners mentioned also highlighted that some of them were detained without trial (before appearing in court) and that later when the courts of law decide on their sentences, the previous year’s served in jail have been ignored.

The mayor of Huye said that in collaboration with courts, the district is going to work on this to regularize it.

Prisoners appreciated the visit, and the Mayor said they will keep visiting them in order to talk about their problems and finding solutions.

While the 18th commemoration of the 1994 genocide against Tutsis continues in Huye district, residents are urged to provide information about areas where bodies of genocide victims might be so that they could be reburied with honour.

The message was sounded on 18th April while during the commemoration of genocide at Simbi sector.

Hon. Jacqueline Mukakanyamugenge who had joined the district in commemoration said it should be better if all genocide victims are well buried, because survivors feel well when their relatives are honorably buried.

She observed that everyone should be involved in giving information of places where bodies of victims can be found.

All guest speakers at the ceremony encouraged genocide survivors to keep remembering victims of the 1994 genocide while working hard to attain a brighter future.

During the commemoration at Simbi, two bodies were reburied with honour and people living in the area were told to keep on searching for other bodies since there are other people whose loved ones have not yet been found.