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  • Rwanda Plans to Start Sinking Geothermal Wells

    Rwanda plans to start drilling exploratory geothermal wells in an area that may have at least 700 megawatts of steam power, following in the footsteps of neighboring Kenya, Energy Minister Coletha Ruhamya said.

    Rwanda lies within the same Great Rift Valley fault system as Kenya, where shifting tectonic plates provide sizeable reserves of geothermal energy. Kenya, Africa’s biggest geothermal power producer, estimates the extent of its untapped power resources at as much as 10,000 megawatts, enough to meet its own electricity needs and export the surplus.

    “Geothermal is the area that the government of Rwanda wants to prioritize,” Ruhamya said, according to a statement e- mailed from the Nairobi-based Geothermal Development Co. today. “Since Kenya has progressed far in the area, we are looking for collaboration and partnership in capacity building, drilling and putting plants in place.”

    Ruhamya made the comments in a meeting yesterday with her Kenyan counterpart Kiraitu Murungi, according to the statement. She didn’t say when drilling may start. The New Times newspaper reported on March 10 that the country would start digging wells in August, citing Ruhamya.

    Experts from Kenya’s state-run Geothermal Development Co. are currently training 12 Rwandese students on how geothermal technology works, today’s statement said.

    Investigations into Rwanda’s geothermal potential began in 1982 with the north-western Volcanoes National Park and areas around Lake Kivu identified as possible sites, according to the energy ministry’s website.

  • Business Life After Death in Rwanda

    Last month, three Rwandan owners, graduates of the three-year BPeace program, visited the United States during a trip that paired them with American businesses in their industries. The participants included Languida Nyirababeruka, who founded Pompe Funebre Twifatanye, a funeral home, after the 1994 genocide.

    Ms. Nyirababeruka, a former teacher who lost her job for political reasons, ran a tailoring business before 1994. The genocide claimed her husband and several family members, as well as her home and business. When it was over, she had to locate her three children, now in their 20s. “After the genocide, I started from scratch,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. A United Nations contact helped Ms. Nyirababeruka get a job as a cook, and she began to rebuild her life in Kigali.

    The idea of opening a funeral home took shape after Ms. Nyirababeruka spent an exhausting day helping a friend plan a funeral. At the time, there was no one business that provided all funeral-related items and services, like coffins, transportation and flowers. Ms. Nyirababeruka said her friend was forced to “run around, buying things here and there.”

    When Ms. Nyirababeruka opened Pompe Funebre Twifatanye in 2003, her friends and neighbors were uncomfortable with the concept of a business that profited from death. Now, many have become her customers, and she has two competitors. “She’s changing their culture,” said Craig Baker, a BPeace mentor who works at Brady Funeral Home in Danville, Pa., which was the host of Ms. Nyirababeruka for part of her stay. Mr. Baker met Ms. Nyirababeruka two years ago when he traveled to Rwanda to share his expertise.

    Today, Ms. Nyirababeruka employs 10 people, including a recently hired carpenter who makes the coffins that she previously outsourced. Her business, which supports her family, had 2009 revenue of $26,435. Though she said that owning a business places her in Rwanda’s growing middle class, Ms. Nyirababeruka said her company must become more profitable.

    She looked forward to learning from her counterparts in the United States. After leaving Pennsylvania, Ms. Nyirababeruka visited Cobble Hill Chapels in Brooklyn. Brady Funeral Home and Cobble Hill Chapels shared best practices and arranged field trips to the businesses that service the industry, including florists, cemeteries, headstone makers and a morgue.

    During a meeting with the staff at Cobble Hill, Ms. Nyirababeruka admitted she often reduces her prices out of sympathy for grieving families and then regrets it. Although fixed prices are virtually unknown in Rwanda, Ms. Nyirababeruka vowed to establish them for her services and to make no exceptions. She was intrigued to learn that many American funeral homes offer interest-bearing accounts that make it easier for families to save for future funeral costs. Back in Rwanda, she plans to educate people to prepare for funeral expenses and to increase her chances of collecting them.

    At Cobble Hill, Ms. Nyirababeruka also learned about potential add-on products and services that could boost her profits, like rosary beads and casket engraving. While some practices (like embalming) would be too costly for her to implement now, she learned how to create printed extras, like prayer cards, using a computer. She left Cobble Hill with shopping bag full of samples, including thank-you notes and a guest book.

    Ms. Nyirababeruka hopes one day to pass her business on to her children. She is thinking about sending her son to a funeral services program that Mr. Baker attended in Pennsylvania and that they visited during her trip. Most of all, she said, she hoped her children will struggle less than she had.

  • BRALIRWA launches star search contest

    The country’s largest beverages manufacturer, Bralirwa through its Primus beer brand will sponsor a music competition dubbed ‘Primus Guma Guma Super Star’. Among the main highlights of the three month competition is a concert that will feature one of the most recognisable faces in world music Sean Kingston. The Jamaican-American singer is scheduled to jet into the country on 30th July 2011to grace the finals and perform live.

    In an exclusive interview with IGIHE.com, the brand manager of Primus and Heineken, Jean Pierre Uwizeye said that BRALIRWA through the Primus brand is launching the competition with initial ten contestants who have been preselected by the local media.

    Uwizeye said that in March this year, the local media were invited to conduct a pre-selection of the most promising artists who would be revealed on Saturday, 7th May 2011.

     ”After illuminating on the top ten artists on 7th May 2011, all those artistes will each receive RwF 1.5million. They will then perform concerts countrywide as a way of campaigning for votes,” Uwizeye said.

    He observed that the competition would be conducted in three phases with the first selection due for 16th May. The top ten artists would campaign from one province to the other and thereafter, the public would from 2nd July 2011 vote in their favourite musicians. Each fan would be limited to two sms votes.

    Uwizeye explained that BRALIRWA alongside the partner telecommunications companies would ensure there is no manipulation of the votes.

    Through the polling, fans will select the top seven contestants. Subsequently, the battle for the winner among the four finalists will take place from 9-16 July 2011. This time, the supporters will send in only one text message per week, which translates to two votes in two weeks.

    The winner will be declared on 30th of July. During the gala, Sean Kingston will perform live alongside Rwanda’s most talented artistes. The winner will scoop Rwf 6 million on top of a free ticket to the USA to record a song with Sean Kingston. 

    Uwizeye disclosed that the Primus Guma Guma Super Star contest is organised by promoters from other East African countries to make it a success. 

  • Promote team spirit- Governor urges local leaders

    The Governor of the Southern Province, Alphonse Munyentwari, has urged local leaders to promote team spirit and improve communication skills as a way of delivering better services in the community.

    The governor made the remarks during the celebration of the International Labour Day marked in Muhanga district this Tuesday.

    Munyentwari said : “There is need to build a team of leaders, which has good qualities of communication, friendly and highly disciplined. A team which is able to do monitoring, evaluation and cross checks its activities, so as to deliver services and promote good governance”

    The governor further asked local government leaders to consult with residents and opinion leaders during the implementation of community development activities build a strong collaborative effort with key players in development. 

    Guest speaker, Théoegene Karake, the secretary General of Association of Local government officials (RALGA), made a presentation on customer care and service delivery. He called upon local leaders to be examples in their community.

     “Customer care is a value that should be evident in all leaders and this can be done through exhibiting a character of simplicity and courtesy to the clientele”.

    “If the president of the republic can receive guests with a warm welcome, then what does it take for a local leader to stand up and receive residents who enter their offices ?” he posed.

    Other speakers at the celebrations included Brig. Gen.Mubarak Muganga, who also challenged leaders on the image of a leader in public, and the manner in which they spend a lot of time on their phone calls instead of attending to clients.

    Muhanga District also rewarded three best performing cooperative- and IABM cooperative which emerged top, was awarded Rwf500.000 cash prize to boost its maize growing activities.

    A district local leader’s savings and loans cooperative (KOPIMU) was also officially launched and its leaders elected during the celebrations held at the Muhanga Cultural center.

    The governor hailed the activities of cooperatives in Muhanga district, and encouraged cooperatives to also focus promote the growth and integration of human values with the members, so as to build a nation towards unity in development.

  • Two suspected Rwandan militia leaders to face German court

    The trial of two Rwandans charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes for violence carried out against civilians in Congo has opened in southern Germany.

    The trial is the first in Germany to be carried out under the principle of universal jurisdiction that allows states to pursue foreigners for crimes carried out abroad.

    German prosecutors have charged Ignace Murwanashyaka and Straton Musoni with leading a mostly ethnic Hutu militia to kill more than 200 people, carry out numerous rapes and force children to serve as soldiers in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.

    It was not immediately clear if the men would address the court at the opening on Wednesday.

    Both men were living in Germany at the time of their November 2009 arrest.

  • Rwandan neighbour: Kobagaya not at ethnic killings

    A former neighbour of a Rwandan accused of participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide testified Tuesday that he never saw the man at any of the ethnic killings in the area where they lived.

    Jean-Marie Byiringiro took the stand during the third day of testimony in the U.S. immigration trial of Lazare Kobagaya. Byiringiro, who admitted killing a 12-year-old Tutsi boy in exchange for a goat as part of the genocide, said he was at nearly all of the ethnic killings in the area where he and Kobagaya lived.

    Kobagaya, 84, is in a federal courtroom in Kansas, USA, fighting charges of unlawfully obtaining U.S. citizenship in 2006 with fraud and misuse of an alien registration card. The government, which is seeking to revoke his citizenship, contends he lied to U.S. immigration authorities about his involvement in the genocide. Kobagaya contends he is innocent.

    The arsons and killings related to Kobagaya’s case allegedly occurred in a rural community known as Birambo, where Kobagaya and his family lived at the time, as well as at Mount Nyakizu, where thousands of Tutsis had sought refuge.

    The government contends Kobagaya was a wealthy and influential leader who incited the arsons and killings in his community, along with Francois Bazaramba, a former Rwandan pastor who was sentenced last year to life imprisonment by a Finnish court for committing genocide against the Tutsi minority in 1994.

    Most of Byiringiro’s testimony implicated Bazaramba, not Kobagaya. In fact, Byiringiro, who served seven years in prison for his role in the genocide, told jurors that Kobagaya, a Hutu born in neighboring Burundi, didn’t have any power in the community because he was a refugee in Rwanda.

    When a mob gathered at Bazaramba’s house before the homes of Tutsis were set on fire on April 15, 1994, Byiringiro said, Kobagaya came out of his house only because people were in front of it. It was Bazaramba who spoke to the crowd, Byiringiro said. During the speech, Bazaramba called on Kobagaya to explain to the crowd that the Tutsis were bad people.

    Byiringiro said through a translator that Kobagaya did tell people that “we did not know the badness of the Tutsis” and that if they didn’t kill them, the Tutsis would kill the Hutus. However, Byiringiro told the jury he didn’t see Kobagaya join the rest of the crowd of more than 100 people in the arsons.

    His testimony came a day after another neighbor, Valens Murindangabo, testified that Kobagaya told the mob to burn down the houses of Tutsis so they wouldn’t return and ordered the killings of others.

    On Tuesday, defense attorney Kurt Kerns questioned Murindangabo, a former teacher who has served more than 10 years in prison for his role in the genocide, about an eight-page government form he had filled out as part of his own confession. The form asked him to list all witnesses and accomplices, but it didn’t have Kobagaya’s name.

    Murindangabo insisted an attachment had been lost that listed Kobagaya as participating in the genocide.

    The defense also hammered on the money he was receiving for his testimony — $96 a day while he is in the United States and $274 when he was in Rwanda for meeting with investigators. The defense team noted that is a lot of money in Rwanda, where the per capita annual income is $490 a year.

  • Rwanda projects lower farm output this year

    Growth in Rwanda’s agricultural output is seen slowing to 6 percent in 2011 from 7.1 percent last year due to a drought late in 2010, agriculture minister Agnes Kalibata has said.

    The country has invested in new agricultural production to raise food and export output, with agriculture a mainstay of recent economic growth.

    “Agriculture growth this year will not be as good as the previous year’s because of a drought at the end of last year, so we expect around 6 percent growth,” Kalibata said during a rural poverty conference.

    “Next year we go back to our original plan, 8 percent growth,” she added.

    Kalibata said increased agriculture investment would pave the way for Rwanda to reduce its dependence on two of its main imported crops — rice and wheat.

    “We are investing very strongly in irrigation systems that will see (rice) imports going down in the next three years,” she said.

    “We will probably be importing about 10 percent from 40 percent now by 2014. In wheat we also have investments coming in that indicate… we could produce in the next two-to-three years about 50 percent of what we consume in the country,” Kalibata added.

    Rwanda currently produces 60 percent of the rice it consumes, importing the shortfall, while it imports about 60 percent of its wheat needs.

    She said the country of about 11 million people did not have any food security fears, although the rising global cost of fuel and food prices could impact domestic inflation.

    “Inflation is going up because some imported commodities are going up because fuel is influencing them,” Kalibata said.

  • 2011/2012 budget estimates hit FrwI trillion mark

    For the first time in the country’s history, estimates show that the budget will total Frw 1.116 trillion compared to Frw 984 billion during the previous year.

    Finance minister John Rwangombwa made the announcement yesterday when he read the first budget estimates for the year 2011/2012 before Parliament. The presentation was meant to seek opinions from parliamentarians before the final reading on June 8, this year. 

    “We have resources, we increased domestic revenues and this budget reflects the collective determination of the government to mobilise resources,” Rwangombwa said in an interview after the presentation.

    Rwangombwa said that the priority areas include agriculture, trade and financial services. Revenues invested in productive capacities will increase from Rwf137.4bn to Rwf 199.7 billion in the upcoming budget, representing a 17.9 percent of the total budget. Other areas that recorded an increase in budget allocation include the human development and social sectors.

    The minister said that the ministry is increasing resources to support the budget but there has also been consistency in terms of the support received from development partners at 41 percent of the total budget.

    He attributed this to the country’s accountability on the funds donated by development partners. Development projects account for Rwf503 billion representing 40.9 percent of the budget compared to Rwf394b in the last financial year.

    Development projects account for Rwf503 billion representing 40.9 percent of the budget compared to Rwf394b in the last financial year.

    Rwangombwa further pointed out that tax revenues are projected to climb from 13 percent to 14.6 percent, while donor funding would decrease from 12.8 percent to 10.1 percent.

  • Ready, Set, Wibro!

    Forget your wireless network at home, office or Wi-Fi hot spots around the city. Kigali is now itself a wireless hot spot , thanks to the newly-built fibre optics infrastructure and base stations installed around the capital supplying the city with the latest wireless broadband technology known as Wibro, developed by Korean Telecom, a South Korea firm.

    In an age where technology is gathering staggering pace, Rwanda has had a head start with an astonishing 4G technology that provides high speed connectivity superior to the conventional 3G.

    The Wibro project, which had taken a whole year to complete, has an approximate coverage of 80 percent of the city making it accessible to almost everyone.

    “It is now awaiting the final processes of commercialisation before it can reach the market,” says the Division Manager, Mark Karomba at the Wibro Centre in Telecom House, a process estimated to be complete before the third quarter of the year.

    On inquiry about its advantages says. “This wireless broadband will provide users with a faster connection enabling them to enjoy the internet experience at a much higher level, be it on smart phones or even on the go with your laptop.”

    The interesting feature of mobility is a trademark of the Wibro technology that makes it even more convenient and flexible in terms of use, compared to other powerful technologies such as WIMAX.

    The project will operate in the public sector for a while before switching to the private sector. It will be under government control offering the service at an undisclosed tariff that is projected to be even lower than what other internet service providers are presently charging. “The goal of this is to widen the Rwandan market in terms of access to internet. By offering a cheap and accessible service, the penetration rate of internet within the population, which is approximately 2 percent, is bound to increase,” observes Karomba.

    Even though Kigali will be the hub of this broadband technology, a nationwide expansion is anticipated with areas such as Rwamagana, Huye , Rusizi, Rubavu already covered through the fibre optic networks.

    In addition to WIBRO, other service providers such as MTN and TIGO would continue to be operational. “Implementation of the project is not aimed at competition, but rather a much bigger and far-reaching goal that is expanding the Rwandan internet market. Few players will always keep the prices high but with the new addition of Wibro, prices will be cheaper for the service, making it accessible to more people thus fulfilling our aim of increased penetration,” says Karomba.

    The Wibro technology is a big step technological step that will not only provide the population with a much better internet experience but also allow institutions and businesses to operate efficiently. This would significantly contribute to other areas of the country’s development.

  • Should Rwandans participate in the Big Brother Africa Reality Show?

    This year’s edition of Big Brother Africa (BBA), the television reality show, is underway in South Africa without Rwandan contestants yet again. Surprisingly, countries such as Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, which are in the same region as Rwanda, continue to send contestants to the show. This raises many questions on why Rwanda continues to miss out on the show despite its buoyant local entertainment industry. IGIHE.com interviewed some prominent Rwandan artists to gauge their opinions. Below are their comments :

    Alpha Rwirangira, the winner of 2009 Tusker Project Fame (TPF).
    “Rwandans cannot participate in the BBA because there is no privacy in that house. According to the Rwandan culture, it is unacceptable to expose one’s privacy. People’s privacy is very important in Rwanda ; one cannot feel content when they see their daughters and sons exposing themselves in the name of gaining fame. ”

    Former Miss Kigali now Miss East Africa, Cynthia Akazuba
    “I cannot participate in the show because contestants are exposed to cameras everywhere in the house. Besides, Rwanda has its own culture. If other cultures allow nudity, it does not mean that we will do the same. We have our own culture which represents who we are ; it does not mean that we have to ape all the western influence.”

    Mani Martin, Singer
    “I would wish to see Rwandans take part in the BBA. I believe Rwanda has people who qualify to be in the show and I do not think that it is against the Rwandan culture. This is not true that BBA exposes housemates’ nudity. The exposure is among those caught in nasty acts. If you don’t do funny things in the house, when will the cameras capture you ?”

    Edward Bamporiki, film producer and scriptwriter.
    “Rwandans should take part in the BBA as long as they qualify. I believe that housemates’ nudity is exposed because they want it that way. BBA is like acting in a movie where you are asked to do things that do not reflect your real life experience.”

    Fred Kalisa, Movie Actor
    “BBA is against our culture and I can never do what is against our culture”.

    Dickson Rwiyamirira, Contact FM Radio Presenter and a Tusker Project Fame judge during last year’s auditions in Kigali.

    “Rwandans cannot take part in BBA because they are too shy and respect their culture. ”