Igihe

Author: b_igi_adm1n

  • Libya To Appoint Interim Prime Minister

    Mahmoud Jibril head of Executive Board NTC also sometimes referred to as the council's prime minister was formally responsible for foreign affairs

    Fresh reports have indicated that Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) plans to appoint an interim Prime Minister who will establish a cabinet for the next one month.

    This follows the NTC’s expected Liberation Day to be celebrated this weekend in the Eastern City of Benghazi where rebellion that has overthrown the deceased Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s regime started.

    In Brussels, Belgium NATO officials were scheduled to meet Yesterday to discuss their next steps after a military campaign that included thousands of airstrikes in Libya including one said to have contributed to Gaddafi’s capture and subsequent death on Thursday.

    While Gaddafi’s family seeks a more respected burial- in sorrow, thousands of Libyans have been overjoyed over his downfall taking picture of his body and authorities had to transfer his body to a city commercial fridge as his burial waits.

    Libya’s interim government, the National Transitional Council, has said Gadhafi’s burial will be delayed for a few days to allow International Criminal Court officials to check the body in Misrata if they choose to do so.

    French president Nicolous Sarkozi said no one should rejoice over anyone’s death much as he/she could have done terrible things.

    According to CNN, the international community reflected on the end of the Gaddafi regime quoting US president Barack Obama saying;
    “Our military played a critical role in shaping a situation on the ground in which the Libyan people can build its own future,” President Barack Obama said Friday, referring to the U.S. role in the NATO operation in Libya.

    The American based media empire-CNN also reported that the United Nations and two major human rights groups has called for an investigation into the death of Muammar Gaddafi amid questions over the final moments of the late Libyan strongman’s life.

    “There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died,” the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement. “More details are needed to ascertain whether he was killed in the fighting or after his capture.”

  • Survey Puts Rwanda as Least Corrupt in EAC

    Burundi Police
    A survey by Transparency International (TI) has ranked Burundi as East Africa’s most corrupt country for the second year in a row, with the region’s police, revenue authorities and the judiciary rated as the worst offenders.

    The survey puts Rwanda as least corrupt of member states in East African Community.

    Burundi had a bribery prevalence rate of 37.9 %, from 36.7% in 2010, while Uganda had a rate of 33.9% from 33% last year. Tanzania’s bribery rate rose to 31.6%from 28.6% previously.

    Kenya, whose anti-corruption body is investigating a number of high profile graft cases, recorded a bribery prevalence of 28.8%, down from 31.9%. Rwanda fell to 5.1% from 6.6% in 2010.

    “The police, revenue authorities and the judiciary across the different countries were poorly rated in the regional aggregate index,” TI said.

    Police in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi appeared on the list of the ten most bribery-prone institutions in East Africa.

    EAC bloc is jointly marketing the five member states to potential investors. Graft is among the main concerns that businesses cite as a hurdle when setting up shop.

    The index examines five indicators: likelihood of encountering bribery, prevalence of bribery, its impact, the average bribe size and the total value of bribes paid to an institution out of the total paid to all organisations.

    The World Bank says increased costs for businesses due to corruption, as well as poor infrastructure or insecurity, are “invisible costs” that can hit competitiveness with other regions in the world.

  • Electricity Tariffs Will Reduce- EWSA

    The operations officer of the national electricity utility agency (EWSA) Nathalie Muteteri has affirmed electricity tariffs will decrease as the ongoing extraction of methane gas in Lake Kivu contributes to the current energy in the country.

    Officials from Rwanda Energy, Water and Sanitation Authority (EWSA) are in awareness campaign explaining residents around Lake Kivu, issues related to the extraction of methane gas and its extraction.

    “By 2017, at least 300 megawatts will have been extracted and other study are being conducted to see how to increase energy in the country so definitely tariffs will have to drop down,” Muteteri said in Karongi.

    Muteteri also calmed residents on the fear that methane gas will explode or make Lake Kivu to overturn saying that water surface of the lake overweighs the gas to cause such incidents.

    The lake’s seeming lethal combination of methane and carbon dioxide has continuously made residents fear for their lives, however methane gas is also Rwanda’s vital and promising energy source.

    Reports have suggested that Lake Kivu is one of the world’s three exploding lakes at serious risk of overturning, a process where huge amounts of carbon dioxide are released from the lake’s under surface, suffocating almost everyone residing around the lake.

    Experts have pointed out that there should not be any reason of panic, because the surface area of the lake is far larger than that of methane gas into the water and that extraction work is done by experts and so calling for no panic.

    It is not the first time residents residing around Lake Kivu get panic. Early this year, the State Minister for Energy and Water, Eng. Colette Ruhamya had to respond to them dispelling concerns that the extraction of methane gas and other fossil fuels from Lake Kivu would not harm biodiversity in the area.

    She said that several feasibility studies were carried out on how the extraction will be carried out without causing any harm and how effectively the waters can be separated from methane gas, which contains other fossil fuels.

    Ruhamya added that a Lake Kivu monitoring team was set up to keep a close eye on the activities in the lake.

    According to her, methane gas, carbon dioxide, petroleum, fertilizers, electricity and hydrogen sulphide are some of the fossils fuel that were discovered in Lake Kivu “but due to capacity constraints, Rwanda had to prioritized methane gas and electricity.

    Lake Kivu is said to be containing 65 billion cubic metres of methane (50 million tonnes of petrol) lying 250 metres under the water.

    The available electricity generation capacity in Rwanda in July 2009 is 69MW and is largely produced from hydro power and thermal sources.

    Overall power production has stabilized after severe power shortages in 2004 that caused massive load shedding all over the country, prompted the government to hire emergency power solutions and invest in increasing generation capacity.

    Generation capacity will be expanded to at least 130MW by 2012 mainly through investment in hydropower and methane gas to power projects.

  • Africa Should Seek Lasting Solutions Of Security- Kagame

    Rwandan President Paul Kagame has called upon Africa to seek lasting solutions to its own security needs not waiting for International Community.

    Kagame has been speaking at the opening of a one week East African Community Command Post Exercise(EAC CPX) at Rwanda Military Academy-Nyakinama in Musanze District, Northern province.

    “While partnering with international community is important, Africans have to find lasting solutions to our own problems of peace and security and take the rod that matters in our own hands,” Kagame said.

    Kagame said that in conducting such joint exercises, member states are signaling resolved and addressed jointly the security face that affect people and threaten to delay national and regional development.

    He said that will contribute to reaching at valuable lessons will learnt in the search for solutions to the security needs n the region.

    In addition to the principle of national defense and security, Kagame said armed forces provide confidence, courage and hope for the EAC citizens.

    “Our countries agreed on defense and security collaboration in the areas of military training, technical cooperation, reciprocal visits and information exchange for mutual benefits,” Kagame said.

    “This is the kind of cooperation that gives a meaning to our community as it illustrates unity of purpose and reflects the aspirations of the people of EA to come together and respond to constantly revolving circumstances,” He said.

    Kagame noted that the exercise Ushilikiano Imara fits very well in EAC integration process.

    Earlier on delegations from the five EAC Partner States kicked off with the Final Planning in preparation for the EAC Command Post Exercise codenamed ‘Ushirikiano Imara’ finalize logistic and administrative preparations, consolidating the exercise papers and document the exercise players nominated by the respective Partner States.

    The EAC CPX will be aimed at practicing the military of the EAC Partner States in responding effectively to complex security challenges that may erupt in the region. Such security challenges include conflict, terrorism, piracy and disasters.

    The is expected to be followed by a Field Training Exercise in June next year to be conducted at the Rwanda Military Academy Gako in Eastern Pronvince.

    More than 300 officers from the EAC Partner States Defense Forces converged in the joint command post exercise Ushirikiano Imara is expected to foster cooperation among the EAC Partner States and to enhance collaboration between the civil authorities in the Community and international organizations.

    The EAC Partner States’ Defense Forces regularly conduct joint military exercises aimed at deepening cooperation in defense amongst the bloc’s member states, with similar exercises previously held in Kenya, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.

    These exercises are underpinned by a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Defense which lays down four areas of cooperation that include military training, joint operations, technical assistance, and reciprocal visits that include sporting exchanges and range competitions as well as visits by the Chiefs of Defense forces and exchange of information.

    The MoU was signed in 1998 and revised in 2001.

  • Timeline: EAC Command Post Exercise

    Today marks another historic achivement for Rwanda hosting a high level Military training of Crème de la crème army officials.

    More than 300 officers from the EAC Partner States Defense Forces are now at the Military Academy- Nyakinama in Musanze in a joint command post exercise kicking off today 21 October 2011.

    The exercise codenamed ‘Ushirikiano Imara’ (loosely translated as Firm Cooperation) will be conducted at the Rwanda Military Academy at Nyakinama, Musanze District from 21-27 October and will involve civilians and military personnel.

    9:00am arrival of all invited guests.

    11: 40 am, The president of the republic of Rwanda Paul Kagame arrives at the accademy.

    11:42 am, President Kagame recieved by Lt. Gen Charles Kayonga and other high profiled army officials.

    11:44 am, President Kagame greeting EAC senior Army Officals and other governmnet officials.

    11:45 am, EAC Anthem.

    11: 47 am, Introduction of high profile invited guests

    11: 53 am, Chief of Defense Staff Lt. Gen. Chrales Kayonga addresses the guests saying several exercises like this have been going since 2005. including Ungoza Njyiya in Tanzania 2005.

    11: 59 am, EAC secretary General Dr. Ambassador Richard Sezibera gives a speech saying such joint military training exercises are important in the EAC integration.

    12:10 midday, Minister of Defense Gen. James Kabarebe address the the guests and welcoming the president to give his opening remarks.

    12: 16 pm, President Paul Kagame gives his speech where he said this a very crucial event to have a joint military opeartion to be able to safeguard regional security even responding to disasters jointly.

    12:29 pm, President Paul Kagame given EAC flag to be also given to Brig. Jack Musemakweri.

    12: 31 pm, Jack Musemakweri given the flag and military parade begins matching

    12: 44 pm, President Kagame led to the academy office to be shown the whole activities to tackle in the EAC on a map.

  • Gaddafi To Be Buried Today

    Libya’s new leaders have promised that the 69-year-old Moammar Gadhafi will be buried this Friday in an Islamic traditions in a Sirte cemetery, denying reports that he would be buried in a secret grave, National Transitional Council member, Mohamed Sayeh reported.

    The Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam also confirmed this. “He will be buried Friday according to Islamic custom.”

    The reports from Libya say Gadhafi was shot to death in his hometown of Sirte, where revolutionary fighters overwhelmed the last of his loyalist supporters Thursday after weeks of heavy battles.

    Bloody images of Gadhafi’s last moments raised questions over how exactly he died after he was captured wounded, but alive. Video on Arab television stations showed a crowd of fighters shoving and pulling the goateed, balding Gadhafi, with blood splattered on his face and soaking his shirt.

    Gadhafi struggled against them, stumbling and shouting as the fighters pushed him onto the hood of a pickup truck. One fighter held him down, pressing on his thigh with a pair of shoes in a show of contempt.

    Later footage showed fighters rolling Gadhafi’s lifeless body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and a pool of blood under his head. His body was then paraded on a car through Misrata, a nearby city that suffered a brutal siege by regime forces during the eight-month civil war that eventually ousted Gadhafi, as crowds in the streets cheered.

    Also killed in Sirte was one of Gadhafi’s feared sons, Muatassim, while another son — one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam — was wounded and captured. An AP reporter saw cigarette burns on Muatassim’s body.

    The governing National Transitional Council said interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will formally declare liberation on Saturday in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the revolution against Gadhafi’s rule began in mid-February.

    The NTC has always said it will form a new interim government within a month of liberation and will hold elections within eight months.

    Reports also say that the President Barack Obama told the Libyan people after the fall of Gadhafi; “You have won your revolution.”

  • Rwanda Plans Insolvent Law Awareness Campaign

    Despite major reforms in ease of doing business, Trade and Industry Minister Francios Kanimba has said that discussions are underway to kick-off awareness campaign on insolvency law.

    Resolving insolvency is one of the indices where Rwanda performed poorly in the ease of doing business report 2012 released yesterday by World Bank/International Finance Corporation (IFC).

    Minister Kanimba was commenting on the Doing Business report 2012 where Rwanda emerged 3rd in Sub-Saharan Africa and 45th among 183 countries across the globe.

    “There are some indicators where I am convinced that we have to do something to significantly improve, if I take indicator related to insolvency proceedings we are among the countries realy who are not performing well worldwide,” Kanimba said in an interview with igihe.com

    “You know we have enacted insolvency law but the reality is the public awareness campaign for people to know about the new law to start its enforcement has not really started, and we are now discussing on an action plan to see what we can do to move quickly on this indicator from where we are around 165 perhaps to come to a double digits rank instead of triple digits where we are now,” Kanimba added.

    Other indicators where Rwanda needs to improve include delaying contracts(39th) where it has not changed at all, protecting investors dropping from 28 last to 29th this year, while registering property falling by 20 positions from 41st last year to 61st this year and falling by 3 points in dealing with construction permits from 81st position last year to 84th position this year.

    However among 10 indices measured, only three of them Rwanda performed very poorly in t5he ranking of Sub-Saharan African countries including dealing with construction permits (13th ), trading across borders (31st ), 36th out of 38 countries in resolving insolvency while the rest of indices performing below 10 indices.

    Kanimba said that he is convinced that in two years to come, Rwanda will have gained significant improvements in the fallen indicators.

    “There are some indicators that made some countries that were below outdo Rwanda. This does not mean we did not reform but even other countries are reforming too and they are working very hard joining this competition to see what can be made for their doing business to improve,” He said.

    Kanimba called upon Rwandans not become complacent in this year’s score saying that there is a big room for improvement.

  • Rwanda Hosts Global Fund Conference

    Global Fund is holding a two-day regional meeting in Kigali at Serena Hotel aimed at improving the management of risks related to implementation of programs financed by the Fund.

    The meeting is conducted in the realms of finance, procurement and supply chain management, monitoring and evaluation, within an environment that promotes the importance of accountability.

    This follows reports about misuse of Global Fund resources in some grants, an aspect that incited debate about corruption in foreign aid and particularly in the Global Fund.

    The meeting has attracted participants from west and central Africa, east Africa and Indian Ocean.

    Some participants have urged donors to withhold support for the fund till efficient measures are established.

    However, others suggested the fund should not be penalized for oversight shortcomings often encountered by many aid programs.

    In his opening remarks Samuel Boateng, the Global Fund Acting Unit Director of Africa and Middle East, explained that Rwanda was chosen to host the event due to the prevailing good leadership and the adoption of effectual Global Fund architecture.

    Boateng urged participants to recall the resource constrict environment they are working in, and thus come up with better ways of managing available resources and turn the page from Emergency to sustainability.

    Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, the Rwandan Minister of Health welcomed participants to Rwanda and requested solidarity in management of Global Fund grants due to the major reason that whenever one mismanages, all are penalized.

    She asserted that good leadership, zero tolerance for corruption, legal frameworks for aid management that characterise the government of Rwanda have been key points in the successful management and implementation of Global Fund grants.

    Binagwaho invited participants to think of adaptive strategies that can be entirely applied at country level.

    The meeting was constituted of workshops, interactive sessions and panel discussions that focused on countries’ perspective of partnership for accountability and risk management.

    The sessions were facilitated by Global Fund staff: Linden Morrison, Dr. Akram Ali Eltom, Christa Arent, Charles Ohene-Nyako, Mariatou Tala Jallow, Nathalie Zorzi, who embarked on subjects ranging from Global Fund reform and future directions, strengthening partnership to manage risk and scale up impact, as well as Accountability and risk management.

    “One cent mismanaged is one cent less to save lives!” says Dr. Akram Ali Eltom.

    The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was established in 2002 as a public-private partnership that aimed at providing considerable financial support for global responses to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB), and Malaria.

    As of mid-2011, the Global Fund had strived to provide $22.3 billion to help 150 countries fight the three diseases.

    The Global Fund Board has cumulatively approved US$ 868,723,003 to support the Government of Rwanda to fund its HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis (TB) programs in addition to strengthening of its health system, since 2003 to June 2011.

    63% of the total amount approved was for HIV/AIDS program, 26% for Malaria, 7% for TB, and 4 % for Health system strengthening.

  • Kenyan Traditional Artist To Perfom in Kigali

    Tony Nyadundo a musician from Kenya is slated to perform the Ohangla a traditional style of music by the Kenyan luo tribe tommorow at Macadamia restaurant.

    Commonly refered to as “King of Ohangla” Nyadundo is arriving in Kigali tonight.He will be backed by the Ohangla Boys band.

    The event is organized by both Dj Nano and Dj Ken, the two are renowned to spearheading the EAC integration process through entertainment.

  • REPORT: Sub-Saharan Africa Improves Doing Business

    A new report from IFC and the World Bank finds that a record number of economies in Sub-Saharan Africa improved business regulations for local entrepreneurs in the past year.

    Released today, Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a More Transparent World assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 183 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency, and trading across borders.

    This year, the rankings on ease of doing business have expanded to include indicators on getting electricity.

    The pace of regulatory improvements has picked up across Sub-Saharan Africa. Six years ago, a third of Sub-Saharan African economies made improvements to the regulatory climate for domestic firms.

    Between June 2010 and May 2011, 36 of 46 governments in the region implemented reforms in at least one of the 10 areas measured by the report.

    With three reforms, Rwanda has jumped a further 5 places, landing this year at position 45. Rwanda is third best performer in Sub-Saharan Africa, only behind Mauritius and South Africa.

    Rwanda made starting a business easier by reducing the business registration fees. And it eased firms’ administrative burden of paying taxes by reducing the frequency of value added tax filings from monthly to quarterly.

    Rwanda’s credit information system improved, as its private credit bureau started to collect and distribute information from utility companies and also started to distribute more than 2 years of historical information. Rwanda made transferring property more expensive, however, by enforcing the checking of the capital gains tax.

    “Entrepreneurship is constrained when regulation is too complex or onerous,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group. “With their impressive improvements this year, the governments of Sub-Saharan Africa are improving prospects for local businesses.”

    For the fourth year in a row, Mauritius was the easiest place in Sub-Saharan Africa for an entrepreneur to do business, with a global rank of 23.

    By implementing reforms in areas such as paying taxes, getting credit, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, and resolving insolvency, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone and Burundi are among the region’s most-improved economies for entrepreneurs.

    “Post-conflict economies such as Burundi, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are among those that have implemented broad regulatory reforms,” said Sylvia Solf, lead author of the report. “They demonstrate that despite challenges, economies can move forward to encourage entrepreneurship.”

    New data show that improving access to information on business regulations can aid entrepreneurs.

    In many Sub-Saharan African economies, getting essential information often requires meeting with an official, demonstrating that improving access to information remains one of the region’s areas for improvement.

    Over the past six years, 43 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa have made their regulatory environment more business-friendly.

    Recently, steps have also been taken to improve business regulation through regional coordination to overhaul a body of harmonized commercial laws—a legal reform requiring consensus from the 16 member states of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA).