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The president of the court, Justice Harold Nsekela announced on August 10 in Kigali that the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) would now handle all arbitration cases in East Africa.

He said during the opening of the first sub-registry of the regional court in Rwanda that the judicial body was open to cases involving disputes, disagreements and misunderstandings between various aggrieved parties in the bloc.

“The court must be visible in all the partner states,” he said before the Rwandese Chief Justice, Prof Sam Rugege, cut the tape to officially inaugurate the sub-registry at the High Court of Rwanda premises.

He said the opening of the facility would cut down costs of filing cases at the EACJ headquarters in Arusha as well as reduce time spent by the concerned parties in travelling between Kigali and Arusha.

Judge Nsekela told an audience that the opening of the registries was intended to take services closer to the citizens of East Africa.

The trial of Leon Mugesera has been slated to start on September 17, after months of procastination.

Mugesera was extradited from Canada in January 2012 after a legal battle lasting more than 15 years.

The former lecturer is accused of inciting genocide in a 1992 speech delivered in Kinyarwanda, during a meeting of his political party in northern Rwanda. Mugesera was in 1992 one of the vice-presidents of the then ruling MRND party.

His trial was due to start on February 2, 2012, but Mugesera had asked for additional time to make sure his defence team would be complete.

Mugesera was also requesting that the official language for the trial would be French and not Kinyarwanda.

At last, he had argued that one of his lawyers had given up on his case while keeping the files.

“The opening of the trial has been set up for September 17, before a special chamber of the High Court of Kigali”, Rwandan courts’ spokesperson Charles Kaliwabo said.

The High Court was created in February 2012 to try cases referred by the International criminal court for Rwanda (ICTR) and other foreign countries.

Mugesera’s defence lawyer Felix Rudakemwa said that they would be ready.

President Paul Kagame warned that the slow pace by some member states of the East African Community in executing the principles that have been agreed upon should not be allowed to make the bloc lose sight of what it has set itself to achieve.

“One good thing is that we are doing better in putting in place standards and benchmarks of what we want to achieve… these benchmarks will always remind us of what is expected of each member,” he said.

The president was August 10, speaking to media owners, editors and senior journalists on the sidelines of the two-day 5th East Africa Media Summit in the Rwanda capital.

He urged the media to play a key role in accelerating the pace of integration in East Africa such as the swift implementation of the Common Market and Customs Union protocols.

He noted that it was neither right nor fair to accuse any particular EAC member state of being the stumbling block in the rather sluggish implementation of programmes meant to cement regional integration.

Kagame said there was no way everyone among the five members of the EAC would realize each and every programme at the same pace.

“Implementation of the regional integration agenda wouldn’t always be same among the member states because of certain existing differences among them. But I can assure you that we are all keeping our eyes on where we want to go, individually and collectively,” he said.

He explained that the agreement on the basic principles on what should be done or achieved at what time helps in reducing disparities.

“You cannot avoid or wish them (differences between member countries) away… even the European Union is experiencing the same problems though they started much earlier than us,” he said.

The president added that the level of implementation of the regional integration agenda would differ among countries as even within each separate country the level of understanding these goals differed from one category of people to another.

He noted that even in Rwanda, level of understanding on EAC issues varied among the Rwandans.

“But, as I have said earlier, this should not make us lose sight of what we have set to achieve. This should help us to encourage one another on what we are supposed to do to reach there,” he said.

President Kagame criticised Africa’s media for leaving Western media to tell the African story.

“They are imposing their views on us and want everybody to believe what they are reporting is always correct,” he said addingn that though he respected the freedom of the press, he does not accept blanket criticisms and negative reporting on Africa “by those who want to impose ideas on what other people should believe.”

George Omondi of a Kenya based publication Business Daily emerged overall best reporter of East African integration issues for the second consecutive year at the fifth Media Summit held in Kigali.

Omondi walked away with US$4,000 cash prize.

Rwanda Today’s writer Charles Kwizera won in the ‘Higher Education’ category.

Wanjohi Kabukuru of the African Business (The Green Award). In addition, African Laughter’s Robert Koigi won in category of ‘Agriculture and Food Security Reporting’.

Omondi also won an award in the Political Federation Reporting category, while NTV’s Abby Agina won the broadcasting reporting category award at the event organised by EAC and the East African Business Council.

The EAC Secretary -General’s Award 2012 was delivered by Rwandan Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi and the bloc’s secretary-general Richard Sezibera at a gala held in Kigali Serena Hotel 9th August.

The competition, now in its second year, attracted journalists from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi.

Other journalists that participated included; Dorothy Nakaweesi, of Uganda’s Daily Monitor, scooping the EABC Chairman’s Award for the best entry in the Business and Financial Reporting category, while The Citizen’s Zephania Ubwani (Tanzania) took the Health Reporting category.

Rwanda will host a Police Command Post Exercise (PCPX) scheduled at August 19 at the Police General Headquarters in Kacyiru.

The exercise is organised by Rwanda National Police is expected to attract participants from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, South and North Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Cyprus, Eretria, Ethiopia and Rwanda.

The exercise is aimed at equipping participants with skills and knowledge that will help address cross boarder crimes in our Region.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Felix Namuhoranye said,“Cross border crimes have today become not only a regional threat but also a challenge to the whole world.

“It is therefore important that Police Institutions in the region have a similar knowledge and a more harmonized approach of handling the vice.”

ACP Namuhoranye made the remarks while participating in a weekly-televised Police talk show ‘Kubaza bitera kumenya’ aired on the national broadcaster.

Chief Superintendent Elisa Kabera, the Director of International Cooperation in Rwanda National Police emphasised Regional Police cooperation.

“Due to existing differences, it becomes a big challenge for a country to follow and apprehend a person who after committing a crime crosses to neighboring or distant countries.”

Rice farmers in Nyamasheke district have asked government to consider establishing a rice factory in their district to cut down on the high costs they incur while transporting unprocessed rice to a factory located at Bugarama, Rusizi district.

However, rice production in Nyamasheke is currently commendable despite complaints from farmers citing high transportation costs and delayed payments after delivery.

The local official in charge of economic affairs in the district, Bahizi Charles said there is need to increase rice production in the district especially expanding acreage by tapping into Nyagahembe marshland that is currently idle.

The rice farmers have also been urged to pool together all the rice produced in the area, consolidate all the acreage onto which rice is grown in the district and improving their working methods and also strengthening their cooperatives.

Reports from Uganda indicate that Uganda military UPDF has been able to only find two of the four missing helicopters that went off radar while navigating Kenyan air space on their way to Somalia.

The four choppers were flagged off from Entebbe air force base to support a planned military operation against Somali extremist group Al-Shabaab.

Uganda military has withdrawn its own initial report that all of its missing four helicopters have been found.

The army now says two of the aircraft are still missing after they dropped off the radar while in Kenyan airspace.

However, the Kenyan government remained non-committal on the matter.

On Monday, UPDF said it could account for all of its four attack helicopters that went missing Sunday.

It also stated that all its 28-crew members in the four helicopters were safe. One had landed safely at the Kenyan base in Wajir, another crash-landed on Mt. Kenya, while two crash-landed in Garissa.

Today afternoon, UPDF spokesperson Col. Felix Kulayigye said that one helicopter – MI-23 transport chopper – made it to Mogadishu, while two of the three MI-24 attack helicopters were yet to be found.

Col. Kulayigye added that one MI-24 attack helicopter operated by Lt. Col. Chris Kasaija crash landed in Mt. Kenya and all its seven-man crew were rescued and evacuated by the Kenyan military to nearby Nanyuki.

The UPDF spokesperson however, could not account for two of the attack helicopters.

Kenya’s Mau Mau veterans of the famous Mau Mau rebellion against British colonialists are back in the media where government of Kenya insists on fully supporting the ex-fighters’ case against Imperial Britain in a case of human rights violations.

Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga said there is total commitment in Cabinet to ensure the freedom fighters and their families get justice.

He said, “the atrocities committed on the Mau Mau cannot be passed to Kenya.”

“The perpetrators were part and parcel of the colonial system. The responsibility for their actions cannot therefore be shifted to the independence government which was essentially part and parcel of the liberation struggle,” Odinga said.

Odinga made the comments when he met Daniel Leader, one of the lawyers representing Mau Mau veterans, in London Friday.

“There is commitment in the government, from the President down, to ensure this case is settled once and for all.

“The wheels of bureaucracy may be slower than those of justice, but the will is there and we will fully support the Mau Mau case,” he said.

Mr Leader briefed the PM on the status of the case, presented him with a summary of the judgements so far, and letters of support for the Mau Mau from prominent members of the international community, who have thrown their weight behind the freedom fighters.

Among those who have supported the Mau Mau case is Bishop Desmond Tutu and former South Africa First Lady Graca Machel.

The PM told the Mau Mau lawyers that he fully appreciates their volunteer work on behalf of the Kenyan nationalists.

Former Ghana president John Atta Mills has finally been laid to rest.

His body lay in state early Friday, for a third straight day, for a final viewing before being placed in a black limousine for the short drive to the funeral site under military guard.

Thousands of mourners from presidents and dignitaries to ordinary Ghanaians arrived in the capital’s Independence Square on Friday for the funeral of former President John Atta Mills.

Among those who viewed Mills’ body before the service were Cote d’Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia as well as the leaders of Benin and neighbouring Togo.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also attended the funeral.

“He was like a brother to me. I will surely miss him,” Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe told journalists.

Benin’s leader, also the current African Union chairman, Thomas Boni Yayi, described Mills as “passionate about peace in Africa and in the region.”

His death on July 24 following an illness came as a shock to many Ghanaians, despite rumours that he had been sick and reports that he suffered from throat cancer.

Mills’s death just five months ahead of polls in which he was to seek re-election upended the presidential race in a country that recently became a significant oil producer and is praised as a stable democracy in an often turbulent region.