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A five-member team has been appointed to conduct an inquiry into Kenya’s Chopper crash that killed Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, his assistant Orwa Ojode, alongside two pilots and two bodyguards.

The team includes former Kenya Armed Force Commander Major General Harold Tangai, Charles Mutinda, George McOwenga and Faith Irari. The team will be led by Appeal Judge Kalpana Rawal.

Transport Minister Amos Kimunya, while making the announcement on Monday evening, said the team will act as a platform for all stakeholders engage in discussion on how to avert similar tragic crashes in future.

Meanwhile, the United States has expressed willingness to help in the investigation into the helicopter crash.

US ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration told local media that his country would come in “if requested to do so” by Kenyan authorities.

“I have asked my people to lean forward, but we are not going to push. The Kenyan government has to request because we are guests in this country,” he said.

Maj-Gen (Rtd) Gration was speaking of the Sunday’s crash saying the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) would be ready to help.

NTSB is the US agency that mainly investigates air crash disasters.

EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT

“I watched the helicopter, it looked like it was burning while up in the air, a few minutes later we heard a loud bang and we rushed to the scene to find the wreckage and the bodies,” said Elijah Mucheru, who was among the first people at the scene.

Julius Mochai, another witness, said they tried in vain to put out the fire. “The problem started while it was up in the air, I could see smoke from it even before it crashed.

“After the crash, we tried to put out the fire using soil but after every few minutes an explosion would occur and people would run away for safety, making it difficult to put it out,” said Mochai.

The explosions are suspected to have been from a bodyguard’s pistol recovered at the scene. Prof Saitoti and Ojodeh were flying to Nyarongi Catholic Church in Ndhiwa District in South Nyanza for a harambee (fundraising).

After switching to English as a language of instruction in Rwanda, many schools have opened their doors to teach English.

However, the lack of teachers and lack of learning as well as teaching materials are hinder attainment of the Government’s target says one head of Kigali English School.

Switching is that Rwanda officially joined East African Community in 2007, and later on in October 2008 switched from French to English as one of the languages of instruction.

In November 2009, another change occurred when Rwanda was officially admitted into the Commonwealth group of nations.

Living and working in these blocs require a certain level of knowledge in English language.

Rwanda being a francophone country for many years needed Rwandans to adapt to English to compete within the dominantly Anglophone regional bloc and in the world. This has encouraged people to learn English.

Since then many public and private English language schools have been founded in Rwanda.

Meanwhile Jean Fiacre Haliyamutu a headteacher of an English Language School (IELS) notes that there are still some challenges to achieve this goal.

“Despite some challenges including; shortage of qualified teachers, lack of teaching and expensive learning materials, most of the people learning English don’t feel comfortable when they have an opportunity of using such language.

“I advise people to reset their minds and understand that when learning a foreign language making mistakes is a natural thing, however, to overcome this challenge people need to practice a lot. Look for the best schools before joining any to learn English”.

IELS started in 2004 offering general English courses, Business English, and Professional courses such as Medical English, Military English, Aviation English, Tourism English and Legal English.

The school coach’s people who want to take TOEFL and IELTS the IELS has a language laboratory equipped with software of teaching English.

Lack of designate cargo planes greatly affects Rwandair clients’ businesses, because goods for exports are usually delayed, leading to high transportation costs.

This among other challenges were highlighted during the Prime Minister’s recent guided tour of activities of the national carrier-Rwandair.

Dr. Pierre Damien Habumuremyi was also showed different sites and units such as ICT department, the arrival and departure terminals, and where perishable goods such as flowers to be exported are stored.

Presently Rwandair boasts of 41 pilots of which 14 are Rwandan nationals.

Rwandair CEO John Mirenge, told the Prime Minister that the company faces among other challenges, lack of modern equipments and small operating space due to the size of the airport.

Mirenge also said Rwandair aircrafts at Kigali international airport face a challenge of an outdated fueling system explaining that aviation fuel is transported to the planes by trucks and filled manually by fuelers, because the pipes are worn out.

He says this outdated process risky as it can bring about accidents.

In modern fuelling processes, aircrafts are filled with aviation fuel using a big pipe straight from stationed tanks to the aircraft.

Rwandair has a customer base of 250,000 anually , but targets to increase to over 1 million clients in the next ten years.

Rwandair has an annual turnover of close to US$47 million(approx. Frw 29 Billion). The company however, targets to raise to US$ 49 Million.

The national carrier has established 13 flight routes within Africa, but intends to add more 17 routes in Canada, Europe and USA, in the next ten years.

Rwandair administration says it wishes to acquire a carrier cargo plane with capacity of 30 tonnes.

The Premier commended various reforms implemented by Rwandair in 2008.

The Republic of Malawi has cancelled hosting of the African Union Summit Next Month arguing that they would not accept Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to step on their soil because of his indictment on international war Crimes charges.

“After considering the interests of Malawians, I want to inform Malawians that the Cabinet met today (Friday) and decided it was not interested to accept the conditions by the African Union, therefore Malawi is not hosting the summit,” Vice President Khumbo Kachali said on state radio.

Kachali said the country had received a communication from the AU commission that as a host country Malawi was required to invite all presidents including Bashir.

“The commission said if Malawi was not willing to host al-Bashir, the venue should be shifted to another country,” he said, adding that the summit would be hosted by Ethiopia.

Sudan on Thursday said it had urged the pan-African bloc to shift the summit to its Addis Ababa headquarters after the host nation’s refusal to welcome Bashir.

In response, the commission had written Malawi commanding it to either accept al-Bashir or forget hosting the summit.

“While we have obligations to abide by the decisions of the African Union we are also under an obligation to abide by international laws including the Roman Statute,” said Kachali.

Sudan’s president is wanted by The International Criminal Court on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the country’s troubled Darfur region.

Malawi’s new president, Joyce Banda, said in May that she wanted Bashir to stay away from the summit scheduled in Lilongwe on July 9-16, to avoid straining ties with key donors for her impoverished country.

Under current ICC rules, its members including Malawi have a duty to arrest Bashir, who has visited several countries, including some court signatories, without any action being taken.

Earlier this week, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the UN Security Council that failure to detain him and other Sudanese officials accused of war crimes and genocide was “a direct challenge to the council’s authority.”

The Deputy Special Representative of Secretary-General of the UN in the DRC, Leila Zerrougui, has announced support Armed Forces of DRC (FARDC) in a campaign to neutralize armed groups operating in North Kivu.

She made the announcement on Friday 8 June, following the visit with members of the central government in the town of Bunagana, in Rutshuru (North Kivu).

This visit was to assess the security situation in the province characterised by armed violence in all jurisdictions.

Zerrougui noted armed groups constitute a threat to civilians in North Kivu and should put them out of harm’s way.

“Our soldiers (Monusco) have received clear instructions to give full support to the FARDC as part of our mandate. We will consider the protection of civilian populations in areas that are most at risk to neutralize the armed groups,” she said.

She added that the UN mission working with the FARDC to act against armed groups that destabilize the region.

“Whether it is the FDLR, Raya Mutomboki, Cheka Group, we believe that all are negative groups that target civilians. And therefore, they must be neutralised and Monusco will support the FARDC to do, “she said.

Rwandan Youth have been urged to collaborate with security organs through information sharing aimed at promoting peace and order.

The Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Musoni Protais made the appeal Friday while addressing residents of Kiramuruzi sector, Gatsibo District in the Eastern province as part of the ongoing commemoration of Police week.

“Police cannot be everywhere, that’s why we need collaboration of citizens so that security loopholes can be sealed for overall security,” Minister Musoni said.

Emmanuel K. Gasana the Inspector General of Police noted that the youth are known to engage in criminal activities for various reasons.

Rwandan youth should be nurtured to be responsible adults and this should begin now.

There is a growing concern of drug abuse in secondary schools where consumption of narcotics including; Cannabis and kanyanga are very prevalent.

The Police will reach out secondary schools students through awareness campaign against drug abuse and alcohol consumption.

The campaigns are aimed at encouraging the youth to refrain from drug trafficking and consumption that are harmful to their lives and instead shift their focus towards national development.

The campaign is part of the Police week, an annual event marked by many activities countrywide aimed at supporting the public in different areas.

Over the two-week course, a series of activities have been organized by the Police force and local authorities to support the population on issues relating to economic development and improved human security.

The 2012 Police week focuses on the eradication of drug abuse and gender based violence. These two are big issues that Police hopes to address in the interest of the population especially the youth.