Two Brave Women Who “Got Tired Of Giving In” – Meet Rosa Parks And Diane Rwigara

The two women lived in different times. One passed away on October 24, 2005. The other is in her prime. They lived in different countries. One lived in America. The other lives in Rwanda. But they both acted in the same way when they reached a tipping point – they got “tired of giving in.”
Meet Rosa Parks and Diane Rwigara.
In December 1955, Parks refused to obey racist laws in America. Her defiance became an important catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement. Parks soon became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation in her country – she simply “got tired of giving in” to injustice and repression.
What gave Parks the courage to stand up for her rights when most feared the brute force of the state? This is how Parks explained it:

“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”

Fast forward to February 2017. A young Rwandan woman named Diane Rwigara, too, got tired of giving in to a repressive state of her country, Rwanda. While most Rwandans hide under their beds rather than confront the Rwanda regime that has beaten them into submission, Rwigara stood up and said no. And she said no to several characteristics of the repressive regime in Rwanda including:

• No to the hunger that is ravaging Rwanda while the country’s rulers live like kings.
• No to mysterious disappearances of innocent Rwandans whose crime is to exercise their basic human rights.
• No to wealth concentrated in a tiny ruling elite while the rest live in dire poverty and unemployment, especially the youth.
• No to the so-called “development” of buildings designed to impress visitors while children go hungry.
• No to the arrogance of the powerful that are unaccountable to the people who pay them salaries – taxpayers.
• No to crony capitalism that is not based on real private sector but the grabbing of other people’s businesses and properties.

Diane Rwigara, by “getting tired of giving in” you are the Rosa Parks of Rwanda. May your act of defiance lead to the same results as that of Rosa Parks. May your defiance become an important catalyst for freedom from dictatorship. May you become an icon of resistance to injustice in Rwanda.

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David Himbara

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How the World Economic Forum Became A Partner In Kagame’s Delusions of Grandeur

Open Letter to Mr. Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman, the World Economic Forum (WEF)

August 30, 2016

Dear Sir, in your annual competitiveness reports, you rank Rwanda very highly. In the Global Competitiveness Index 2014–2015, for example, you ranked Rwanda 62nd out of 147 economies. According to you, Rwanda is one of Africa’s most competitive economies and the top performer in East Africa — well ahead of Kenya ranked 90th, Tanzania and Uganda, ranked 121st and 122nd, respectively.

Mr. Schwab, these rankings are questionable, not least because Rwanda is heavily dependent on its neighbors from which it imports most of its basic needs as well as foreign investment. For example, four out of six companies listed on the Rwanda Stock Exchange are Kenyan. Further, Rwanda’s economy is by far the smallest compared to its neighbors in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita income as indicated by the 2015 World Bank data:

• Kenya’s GDP was $63,398 with a GDP per capita, PPP (current international $) of $3,082.5.
• Tanzania’s GDP was $44,895 with a GDP per capita, PPP (current international $) of $2,667.3
• Uganda’s GDP was $26,369 with a GDP per capita, PPP (current international $) of $1,825.3.
• Rwanda’s GDP was $8,095 with a GDP per capita, PPP (current international $) of $1,758.7.

Even when looking at the factors WEF supposedly measures to determine its competitive rankings, namely, institutions, infrastructure, and education and health; there is no way that Rwanda outperforms its larger neighbors, least of all, in the state of economic infrastructure as I comprehensively demonstrate in my new book, Kagame’s Economic Mirage.

Dear Mr. Schwab, I now know where your problem is — it is in the method you use to draft your competitiveness report, or more precisely, what you term “partner institutes” that provide you the data. This is how you explain the importance of your partner institutes:

The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network is pleased to acknowledge and thank the following organizations as its valued Partner Institutes, without which the realization of The Global Competitiveness Report 2014–2015 would not have been feasible:

In the case of Kenya, your partner institute is Kenya Institute for Development Studies, the University of Nairobi. In Uganda, your partner is the Uganda Kabano Research and Development Center. In neighboring Burundi, your partner institute is the Burundi University Research Centre for Economic and Social Development (CURDES), the National University of Burundi.

And which institute do you partner with in Rwanda? In the 2014–2015 Competitiveness Report, you cite the Rwanda government itself through Rwanda Development Board (RDB), and its then CEO Valentine Rugwabiza. Your 2013–2014 Report says that your partner institute was RDB headed by the Acting CEO Claire Akamanzi. Your latest report — 2015–2016, cites RDB and its CEO Francis Gatare. That you also cite Private Sector Federation does not help either — that, too, is government-controlled. In any event, Rwanda’s private sector is dominated by the ruling party’s Crystal Ventures Ltd, and therefore, unlikely to provide an independent view on Rwanda’s realities.

We can make two possible conclusions on why WEF chose a different research method for Rwanda that is sharply different from the rest of East Africa. Either WEF is an innocent victim tricked into allowing an intellectual conflict of interest to evolve, whereby a government ranks itself — as opposed to engaging a neutral and independent research institution. Or WEF is a willing partner in President Paul Kagame’s delusions of grandeur of having built an African economic lion.

Either way, Mr. Schwab, you became Kagame’s loudspeaker. Please find a independent researcher to supply you credible economic data on Rwanda, if that is possible under a totalitarian state that controls anything that moves.

Yours Sincerely,

David Himbara

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Unknown to most, Kigali is a dirty city. It is smartly dressed but with dirty underwear.

How "Modern" and "Clean" is our Capital Kigali?

Good news! The National Institute of Statistics, Rwanda (NISR), has issued its Thematic Report on "Characteristics of Household and Housing," January 2014.

For statistics-crazy people like yours truly, its time to quench our thirst with "new" knowledge.

To put the new data to use, I briefly probe two aspects of Kigali Capital, namely, how "modern" and how "clean" it really is.

How "Modern" and "Clean" is our Capital Kigali?

HOW DOES ONE MEASURE THESE?

As is evident on the attached picture, Kigali is visually impressive. But the least effective way of assessing cities is surface appearance as in buildings on the main road.

There are more effective ways of measuring "modernity" and "cleanliness" of world capital cities.

I am inclined to look at two most fundamentals in life to get an insight into cleanliness of a major urban habitat: how most city residents 1) prepare their meals and 2) and the mode of toilet infrastructure via which they release themselves.

Can you thing of anything more fundamental than that? I sure can't. Luckily the NISR provides us with data to answer both questions.

HOW MEALS ARE PREPARED IN RWANDA & IN KIGALI

According to NISR, about 95% of Rwandan households (2.4 million) use either firewood or charcoal for cooking. More urban-based households (63%) than their rural counterparts use charcoal.

Of urban population only 5% of Rwandan households use electricity to cook. This use is primarily a Kigali phenomenon.

TOILET INFRASTRUCTURE IN RWANDA & IN KIGALI

According to NISR, only 1% Rwandan households use flush toilets - meaning that 99% use pit latrines.

That is a lot of latrines in Rwanda. Nearly 2.4 million latrines.

Of urban households including Kigali, 5% use flush toilets - meaning that 95% use pit latrines.

NISR, furthermore, informs us that in urban Rwanda "households often use shared toilet facilities due to lack of space or due to limited financial resources."

It comes as no surprise that there is no sewage system in Kigali City, a habitat of 1 million.

CONCLUSION?

Unknown to most, Kigali is a dirty city. It is smartly dressed but with dirty underwear.

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Gutabariza Umuyobozi wa FDU-Inkingi Madame Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza

Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza 

Kuva kuwa gatandatu ushize tariki ya 24 Nyakanga 2016 Mme Ingabire Victoire Umuhoza ararwaye bikomeye kandi yasabye ubuyobozi bwa gereza ya 1930 afungiwemo ko yavuzwa ariko kugeza ubu twandika bwatereye agati mu ryinyo! Kuva ejo kandi twari twasabye umuyobozi wa gereza ko niba gereza nta bushobozi ifite batwemerera tukamwivuriza ariko nta gisubizo baraduha.

Nta gushidikanya ko ubu buyobozi bwa gereza ya Nyarugenge bwaba buri ku gitutu cy'ubutegetsi bwa Kigali kugirangi iyi mpirimbanyi ya demukarasi yicwe urubozo na cyane ko ibi bidasanzwe kuko ubundi yajyaga ajyanwa kuvuzwa bitanagombye ko tugomba kumutabariza.

Si igitangaza ku kwibasirwa kuyu munyapolitiki ariko ni ubwambere yibasiwe mu kubuzwa kubona ubuvuzi kuko ibyari bimenyerewe kwari ukumubuza ubundi burenganzira ngo kusurwa kubonana uko bikwiye nabunganizi be nta nkomyi...

Turasaba ubuyobozi bwa leta y'uRwanda ko bukwiye kujya iteka bwumva ko nta kiri hejuru y'ubuzima bw'umuntu kuburyo bubukiniraho nta nkomyi.

Twongeye gusaba dukomeje ko umuyobozi wa FDU Inkingi yahita ajyanwa kuvurwa kugirango ubuzima bwe burengerwe.
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Boniface Twagirimana

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Kigali is the Worst Possible Venue for African Union Summit on Human Rights

Between 10th and 18th July, 2016, Rwanda will host the 27th African Union Summit on the theme; ‘’2016: African Year of Human Rights with a particular focus on Rights of Women’’. The African Union must be applauded for giving a particular importance to Human rights and specifically, women rights. On a regular basis, women across Africa suffer from systematic discrimination and abuse with limited ways and means for redress. Their rights to intimacy are violated with impunity by men. Their political and economic rights are also not guaranteed due to age-old traditional and cultural norms embedded in a male-dominated social superstructure. If the African Union is determined to do away with this cultural vestige against our women gender, it is a welcome development.

The venue, however, the AU chose to hold this summit raises eyebrows. For the past 20 years, the Rwandan government has been a consistent violator of women, men and children rights. Presently, one female opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is languishing in prison because she dared in 2010 to challenge President Kagame for the highest office of the land. Rwanda may boast of 63% of parliamentarians being women but let this figure not fool anyone. Rwanda’s parliament is a rubber-stamp, designed to legitimise executive decisions. Outside of parliament, Rwandan women’s rights are violated with impunity whether at the mercy of state apparatus or through traditional gender biases.

Present day Rwanda is a graveyard of all manner of rights taken for granted elsewhere. African Union is holding its summit on Human rights in a country known for indiscriminately abusing rights and the host, President Kagame is known for his deep-seated disdain for the very notion of inalienable human rights. Examples abound:

After paving a section of the city of Kigali to deceitfully showcase Rwanda’s clean image, a majority of citizens who do not possess enough means to look beautiful and well dressed, cannot dare walk those paved streets without fear of state police stopping them to question them where they are going and handing them hefty fines. There is a manhunt against street children, prostitutes and hawkers kidnapped and cast into Iwawa island in Kivu lake without even informing their relatives.

Rwanda, under Kagame, is the only government in the world that forbids people from growing subsistence food crops and instead orders them to grow cash crops or cut down people’s banana plantations to grow flowers for European market;

Over these past 20 years, the government has progressively and systematically uprooted independent human rights organisations and supplanted them with ones whose purpose is to promote the government agenda and whitewash its image to the outside world. The only media allowed to operate in Rwanda is government media and embedded media houses whose script is never to question the government;

Archives of the international community are awash with damning reports implicating Kagame and his government of human rights crimes, political crimes and war crimes both in Rwanda and in the region and these reports are silenced by an international crime like syndicate of corrupt former world leaders, including the infamous Tony Blair or the Belgian Louis Michel; internationally acclaimed journalists and prelate opinion leaders all in the pay of Kagame and his government using Rwandan meagre resources and Congo minerals.

Rwanda hosting a summit on human rights is akin to the Cayman’s Islands hosting one on money safe havens. While our political organisation, the National Movement Inkubiri, is in agreement with the African Union giving human rights a well-deserved platform, Kigali is the worst venue AU could possibly choose. Rwandans knowing the innumerable abuses their government subjects them to and then witnessing the continental governments converging on what is literally the scene of crime to decorate the arch criminal; it evokes a sentiment of anger, despair and disbelief.

The National Movement Inkubiri does not believe that Africa Union’s intention was to tell Rwandans that they do not count in the grander scale of things but at the same time we question the worst possible choice the African Union could have come up with knowing what they clearly know about Rwandan government’s human rights record. We can only hope that Kagame will not be given a blank cheque but instead challenged to live up to human rights standards enshrined in the African Charter on human and People’s Rights.

Done in Lyon (France)
On 9 July 2016

National Movement Inkubiri
Eugene Ndahayo
Chairman​

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But Kigali is the safest city in Africa! Why all the security?

Roads closed, security tight as Netanyahu lands in Rwanda

Major roads linking Rwanda's capital Kigali to the 10km main road from the airport have been blocked off as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the country for a one day visit.

The Israeli Premier is in Rwanda for few hours during which he has visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre at Gisozi and is expected to hold talks with President Paul Kagame at Village Urugwiro.

Upon arrival, he was welcomed by Mr Kagame at the airport where he inspected a Guard of Honour before proceeding to the memorial centre where he was taken around the museum which contains records of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

President Paul Kagame (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inspecting a guard of honour shortly after he arrived in Rwanda on July 6, 2016. PHOTO | URUGWIRO VILLAGE

The two leaders will address the press before concluding the visit.

The road from Kigali International Airport (KIA) to Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre remained sealed off as motorists and pedestrians were asked to use alternative routes.

Adjoining roads to the main road which link to the main administrative and commercial parts of the city were closed off as stranded motorists parked in wait.

“We don’t know when we will be released to go. We are just waiting. It is a huge inconvenience,” a motorist who spoke to The EastAfrican said.
Rwanda National Police Traffic Department spokesperson, Jean Marie Vianney Ndushabandi, however said only one road was closed off to allow safe passage for the visiting leader.

“The other roads are open. There are alternative roads people can use,” he said briefly on phone. However, motorists and pedestrians said that alternative roads were not communicated.

The two countries share a similar history with regard to the Tutsi Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust.

Ties between the two countries have been strengthened in recent years, with Rwanda opening a diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv in March 2015.
They also have in place trade and investment partnership agreements with the Israel pledging to support Rwanda in sectors such as ICT, agriculture and defence among others.

Last year, Rwanda appointed Col Joseph Rutabana as the country’s Ambassador to Israel.
However, some of Rwanda’s dealings with Israel are not without controversy.

Last year, it emerged that Rwanda had signed a pact with Israel to take some unwanted immigrants from different African countries in return for favourable deals. Uganda is also involved in the deal and has come under scrutiny.
The agreement, which has come under scrutiny by human rights organisations, allows Israel to deport hundreds of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers to both Rwanda and Uganda in return for favourable deals that include millions of dollars in grants.
Addressing a press conference in Kigali last year, President Kagame acknowledged that discussions between Rwanda and Israel were ongoing.

“On Rwanda and Israel, yes, I know there has been this discussion and it has been a debate in Israel about these Africans who have migrated to Israel as they do to other European countries. Some of them are either there illegally or with different status,” President Kagame said at the time.

Earlier this year, it emerged that Israel had sold arms to Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, but the Israeli government said it would keep the details of the arms deal confidential.
From Rwanda, Netanyahu will head to Ethiopia as he concludes an eastern Africa tour which also covered Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda.

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Video: Which Is The Real Kigali?

President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, is always showcasing his capital city, Kigali, as the safest and cleanest in Africa and beyond.

On arrival at international airport in Kigali, plastic bags are taken away from visitors and Rwandans. This is said to be a sign of cleanliness and environmental protection.
All this is propaganda. The real Kigali is something else – slums and dangerous open sewers that kill people during the rain season.

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