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The Communications Director in the Office of the President, Yolande Makolo has said there was no theft or loss of any documents belonging to a member of the Presidents entourage.

She told IGIHE.com that the incidence was minor and not as misreported in the Ugandan Press.

Uganda’s Monitor newspaper had earlier today reported that unspecified documents belonging to Rwanda’s presidential entourage had been stolen claiming that they included some electronics, belonging to President Paul Kagame.

Makolo has told IGIHE.com, “The “stolen documents” – story has been misreported. The documents were personal docs (car insurance forms) belonging to President’s personal physician. They were taken by another member of the delegation in separate luggage but due to miscommunication on this within our team, documents were reported missing to the hotel. But the documents were quickly recovered. It is a very minor issue”.

Ugandan press has also reported that Uganda police has arrested three suspects all employees of Mweya Safari Lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park where the incident happened. The case was registered as 59/25/12/11 at Kasese Police Station.

Uganda’s High commissioner to Rwanda Richard Kabonero told IGIHE.com that he only learnt of the story from the newspaper, ‘I just read the story from Monitor. I don’t have any other information about it. You can contact the Uganda Police” he said.

By press time, efforts to reach Uganda Police Spokesperson Asuman Mugenyi were futile as his mobile phone was switched off. Mugenyi had last evening promised to give details to Ugandan press about the incident.

The Rwanda President was on a five day private visit to Uganda where the first family also celebrated Christmas.

While in Uganda, Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda launched the re-construction of Mbarara-Katuna-Kigali Road at Uganda-Rwanda border.

The Kigali-Katuna-Mbarara Highway is a 201km section of the vital Northern Corridor route linking the economies of East Africa and the Great Lakes region with the Indian Ocean.

Two categories of land owners have been exempted from land tax as long as they have less than two hectares.

Land owners with less than 2 ha of land in rural areas using their land for agricultural purposes will not pay land tax.

Another category includes those with land in towns or suburbs of the city making it economically productive unless the owner turns it into commercial production.

In a meeting convened by the Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, the new land lease tax levied by the government had caused misconceptions.

The Prime Minister has issued a directive to extend the deadline of payment of new land levy which would result into paying fines and a consideration of those who are needy and use their land for agricultural purposes.

Habumuremyi also gave a directive to relevant authorities to go back and study well the fees of land and come up with a balanced land tax standard affordable to all.

He also said the new deadline should allow government to carry out a proper countrywide sensitization about taxation procedures.

The PM also directed authorities to identify any land that is not a wetland to be declassified.

Under the 2005 Ministerial decree on land tenure, the land owners are meant to pay a tax of Rwf 80 per square metre for residential land, Rwf 150 for commercial land in all areas classified as urban areas while a tax ranging between Rwf50 and Rwf 30 be levied on rural land.

“The issue of land tax has been misunderstood and blown out of proportion, the situation is not alarming though and the fees are not as high as alleged, compared to the value of land itself,” said Stanslas Kamanzi the Minister of Natural Resources.

PM convened a meeting that attracted all concerned ministries and government institutions involved in the implementation of the new policy, which will see land owners in their respective categories, pay an annual lease fee on their land.

The meeting which took place at the Prime Minister’s Office attracted Kigali City authorities, ministries of Environment and Natural Resources and Local Government, Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) as well as the Military and Police.

The new tax levied on land under the new tenure system enacted in 2005 whose implementation began last month has been a subject of controversy with landowners crying foul over the inequality involved in the payment and the limited time given to pay up.

“The government doesn’t want this to be seen as a burden on its citizens but rather a tax which is affordable to everyone. As a government, we put the needs of the citizens first,” Habumuremyi said, ordering an immediate assessment of the payment procedure.

Land lease issues were also raised in the recent National Dialogue, the with claims that needy families, especially in rural areas, could not afford to pay the lease fees and poor neighbouring developed areas ended up in wrong categories.

ENDS

The management of Water and Sanitation Authority (EWASA) has assured residents of Rugende that their homes will be connected to the national electricity grid before the end of January 2012.

The speedy decision follows complaints from Rugende residents who had paid connection fees eighteen months ago. Over 60 households contributed Rwf 28,000 as connection fee.

Méthode Rutagungira in charge of electricity at EWASA said, “We normally install electricity in phases and the connection from Muyumbu in Rwamagana will stretch to Rugende soon. I advise Rugende residents to calm down since everything will be solved in the next four weeks,” he said.

Rutagungira communicated the connection plan to Jean Pierre Habinshuti in charge of energy at Gasabo district and assured him speedy completion given that a similar complaint had been presented by Habinshuti.

Antoine Mudogo, the cell leader of Rugende urged EWASA to seriously consider the issue since most affected people face several challenges due to lack of power.”

Resisdents have already wired their houses, fixing light bulbs and buying other electrical appliances.

“When you go to my house you will find engraved wires in my house constructed a year ago hoping electricity would be connected sooner but now I’m
still using a lantern,” a resident told IGIHE.com.

Rwanda’s all stars Tusker Project Fame winner Alpha Rwirangira will leave for USA January 1st where he will pursue music business studies at Campbellsville university for four years.

However, he does not intend to leave his funs like orphans or leave his career to rot but will be coming back for Christmas shows.

“For the last three years I was hosting those shows for charity but now it is something else,” Rwirangira has said.

The Kentucky state based Campbellsville University School of Music provides professionalism in music skills.

It is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), it also provides the kind of education in a music schools including frequent performance opportunities, rigorous academics, and professional training.

The Tusker Project Fame overall winner claims to be inspired to pursue further studies that will help in improving his music skills.

Given the growing young and unexplored entertainment industry in Rwanda, Alpha says he will be able to contribute largely and professionally in the industry.

“I’ve always had a dream of improving Rwanda’s entertainment industry by establishing a professional music academy or capacity building to our managers, promoters and event organizers,” he emphasised.

The US experience will expose him to professionals who will develop his talent at the same time the avenue to facilitate in better production of his music.

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A Zimbabwean man has appealed to Zimbabwe police for help after being ordered to pay Bride price and marry a goat he was allegedly seen having sex with.

The 34-year-old was caught sexually abusing the goat last Wednesday night by the animal’s owners.

The Sithole family is said to have assaulted him before dumping the animal at his homestead and demanding for bride price locally known as lobola.

“This was not the first time that Dziva has been caught red-handed being intimate with the neighbour’ goats,” a local villager told reporters.

“He however, got himself into trouble this time when the Sithole family decided to dump their goat at his home. They are demanding that he pays lobola and take the goat as his wife.”

Negotiations between the two families to resolve the issue collapsed, forcing Dziva to appeal to the police for help.

Officers at Mvuma Police Station referred the matter to the local chief.

Dziva admitted being found in the Sithole family’s goats’ pen but dismissed allegations he had been intimate with the goat.

“It’s only a suspicion, I was not caught red-handed but they (Sithole family) claim that their goat is pregnant and they are demanding that I pay for that,” he told a local press.

“If they found me in there (goat pen), does that mean I was being intimate with their goat?” A local headman said the matter had since been referred to the Chirumhanzu area chief.

Kigali Serena and Nyungwe Forest Lodge have been qualified as the only five star hotels in the country by East African Level Standards.

Thirty hotels were Wednesday given stars as recognition for their hard work.

The ranking is graded at the East African level standards. This aims at encouraging competitiveness among local hoteliers.

Rwanda is the second country after Tanzania to get the rankings, and the assessments were done by experts from the region.

In terms of better services, hotels with stars ranging from five to three tend to give better services despite the fact they might have expensive rates compared to the rest.

While four stars were awarded to Lemigo Hotel, The Manor Hotel, Mille Collines Hotel and Lake Kivu Serena.

Three stars were awarded to eight hotels including;Virunga, La Palme, Alpha Palace, Sports View, Beau Sejour, La Palisse, Golden Hill and Top Tower.

Hotels awarded with two stars include;Sabyinyo Silver Back Lodge, Michael Den, STIPP Rubavu, Stipp Kigali, Dream Inn, Mostej(Rubavu), Ishema (Musanze), Peace Land(Rubavu), L e Belvedere(Rubavu), Home Inn(musanze), Credo (Huye district), Aberdeen, Ninzi Hill Hotel, Okapi Hotel, Impala Hotel and Saint Anne Hotel (Musanze district).

Relay`s Gorilla Hotel is the only hotel appearing in the One star hotel category.

Hoteliers promise to do more to improve their stars by offering better services. “I want to hire more competitive staff and train those I have. I also intend to offer more varieties especially on cuisine,” said Saeed Alam the owner of The Manor Hotel.

The RDB Tourism and Conservation Department Head Rica Rwigamba explained,“The classification system covers 16 sections of the establishments and brings out different aspects of service delivery essential for customer satisfaction including safety and security, comfort and enjoyment.”

“It also covers physical and tangible characteristics of accommodation facilities such as location, dimension of the rooms, supplies in bathrooms and frequency of change of linen.”

“The non-tangible elements such as comfort, ambience, elegance, style and luxury are also assessed. The system also covers social contact in aspects such as staff grooming and communications skills,” added Rwigamba.

John Mirenge the Rwandair Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said,“In the past it was hard to guide foreign clients but with the new guide which will be placed in local aircrafts clients will be more informed on where to spend their leisure time for example.”

According to the RDB CEO John Gara, “these star ratings will certainly have various positive effects. This is an incentive and encouragement for our establishments to continuously improve. In addition, the discerning consumer will have an easy reference to what their preferred accommodation would be.”

Rwanda’s minister of East Africa Monique Mukaruriza noted, “This is timely with the region’s plan of forming a tourism hub with inputs from member states,” she said adding that there are many advantages of attracting more tourists including foreign exchange earnings that stabilise local currency.

Meanwhile the stars will be given yearly in order to rank those which were not recognized partly because during the assessment period they were still upgrading their standards like hotel Umubano formerly known as Laico regency which is being renovated.

Reports from National Police indicate that Youths are the most drug abusers in the country.

In efforts aimed at curbing illicit drugs among the youth, police yesterday completed one-day training of District Community Liaison Officers in fighting drug abuse and alcohol consumption among the youths.

The training workshop was held at the police’s general headquarters in Kacyiru.

Police had earlier recommended for the decentralization of the fight against drugs and alcohol among youth, to the lowest local governance levels.

The campaign will be done at the grassroots and spearheaded by the DCLOs in all districts of the country as was announced during the session.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Vianney Nshimiyimana, the Commissioner for General Services,said that the general trend of crimes in the country has drastically reduced and accredited the work to DCLO’s.

He, however, noted that drug abuse among the youth is still a challenge. “As police, we need to establish mechanisms ensuring that Children are protected from drugs and alcohol”.

“They are the future leaders of the country. They should be guided to be more responsible people,” he added.

He urged for collaboration with other partners such as bar owners, religious and local leaders to effectively contain society crimes.

AIP Bonaventure Twizere, DCLO in Gasabo District commended skills gained that will help further combat the vice. “We will create anti drug clubs and recreation centres in Gasabo to sensitize the youth about the dangers of drug abuse”.

AIP Angelique Abijuru, the DCLO of Bugesera District noted that cooperation with citizens is paramount in addressing the challenge of drug abuse among youths.

“The general public has always provided information about drug dealers which has helped Police in seizing and destroying them and culprits apprehended,” Habijuru said.

She advised parents to be responsible and always monitor their children.

Police is holding a suspected fraudster found in possession with 11 laptops worth Rwf9.7m, stolen from an Indian businessman using a forged cheque.

Three of the laptops had already been sold by the time of arrest.

In an interview with press, Police Spokesperson, Supt. Theos Badege said that the suspect identified as Jean Remy Shema had been residing in a guest house in Remera-Giporoso where he had many computers selling them at a giveaway price.

“After receiving the information, we swung into action to verify and indeed we went to the hotel and found 11 laptops with the suspect.”

“After questioning him, he said he had bought the laptops for re-sell but we later discovered that we had another case involving the same person, so we had to arrest him,” Badege said.