Category: News

The government has announced plans to build a national cultural centre in Gahanga sector, Kicukiro district with construction works scheduled to start next year.

The national cultural centre will be equipped with a library, stage performing theatre, movie theatre and exhibition stalls to display cultural products among others.

“This will not only be a national theatre but a one stop cultural centre since it will be equipped with different cultural materials,” Jean Pierre Karabaranga, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Sports revealed.

“At a moment, we cannot tell how long this process will take because the study is not yet done,” the Permanent Secretary explained, adding that once the construction process starts, it would not take long to be accomplished since it has been one of the major projects earmarked on the ministry’s seven year plan.

The ministry observed that it was imperative to have such cultural centrers hence the plan to have at least one well equipped centre. He added that this was the first time the proposal featured in the ministry’s action plan.

“We were not taking it as a big issue because we thought people would use other centres but we have now found it is necessary,” Karabaranga said.

For many stage performers, it has been challenging since they had no special place to execute their activities which forced them to hire halls in private institution’s halls, which at times would either be too small, booked for other functions or too expensive to rent.

“Most of the time, our performances are commissioned by other institutions and this is not because, we cannot have self-sponsored performances and deliver good and interesting messages to the people, but it’s because we have no facility specifically for such performances and this hinders our popularity and development,” Hope Azeda, Mashirika’s founder and Artistic Director told IGIHE.com in an interview.

With the acting and the theatre scene still embryonic, few professional groups have managed to survive and this has led to slow progress of performing arts in the country.

The Managing Director, Urunana Development Community, George Gahenda reiterated that lack of a cultural centre was a big hindrance towards their development, though they had tried to rectify the problem by moving to the local communities to deliver their message besides conducting radio shows. 

As fuel prices continue to affect the East African region leading to political unrest in some of the countries, Rwanda remains unperturbed as Government delinks the cost of fuel to that of food items.

In a recent interview, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Monique Nsanzabaganwa warns that oil products would always directly or indirectly affect other commodity prices but added that such a stretch should not exceed 0.4 percent to one percent increment arising out of an equal increase on fuel prices. The Minister however says that food prices are expected to remain stable.

“It will depend on the behaviour of the market but food prices shouldn’t change, even last time when fuel process increased, they remained stable,” she says.

On the lack of mechanisms to protect consumers, the minister though admits that there is no law to protect consumers’ interests against overpricing as local consumer watchdog Consumer Rights Association of Rwanda appeals to the government to give it more support to deliver on its mandate.

According to the Acting Managing Director of Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA), Regis Gatarayiha, there have been ongoing discussions and negotiations with the business people not to rapidly increase prices of their products as they wait for the situation to calm down.

Igihe visited various markets in Kigali including Kimironko, Nyabugogo, and Gikondo market among others to ascertain how the mounting fuel prices may have affected the cost of food.

According to the survey, both traders and consumers indicate that there are various other factors like food deficiency that may have impacted on the increase of food prices. 

 “In recent days, the price of beans had increased to RWF 700 per kg but has since fallen back to RWF 600 per kg,” says Rosaria Mukarurinda, a trader in Kimironko market. She notes that inconsistent rainfall has led to a food shortage, that has in turn helped food prices to soar to levels high, a situation she says cannot be blamed on fuel.

For Yeluminee Mukasindambiwe, who vends rice, groundnuts, sugar, millet flour, cooking oil among others, though there is a hike in fuel price, the major problem is a shortage of produce from farmers, who claim little harvest.

“Increase in fuel prices is adding salt to an injury,” Mukasindambiwe says, adding that though food prices have increased, the situation cannot be compared to the neighbouring countries like Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

According to the farmers that we interviewed, the price increase of food prices rose by a small margin among almost all food products. For instance, the price of a kilo of matooke rose from RWF150 to 170 per kg.

Due to the fluctuation of food prices, many of the traders claim that they undergo a lot of challenges as. “We make very little profits but when we deduct taxes, rent and so forth, coupled with the soaring of price in food items, we get almost no profits but still we have to persist until the prices have stabilised,” says Marie Louise Kagoyire, a matooke and Irish potatoes trader at Gikondo market.

A Kigali resident similarly echoes the concerns of the traders saying that they are often forced to reduce on the quantity of the food items due to price the increase.

“When we go to the market hoping to buy, for instance, 50 kgs of posho and find that the prices have been hiked, we reduce on the quantity and purchase little according to the little money we have in our pockets and compared to the income one has,” Vincent Dusabimana, a resident of Jari Sector, Gasabo District, who had come to Nyabugogo food market explains.

For Pierre Bizimana, the increase in food prices is dictated by a decrease in production. He says that he used to purchase 50kgs of sweet potatoes per month but has since reduced this to 30kgs due to this predicament..

On her part, Jeanne Mukakamanzi, who used to purchase 25 kgs of rice for her family says, “I just quit from buying rice because of the price increase which keeps worsning. I will be buying posho until the prices stabilise ,” Mukakamanzi says.