Kagame excites Ruhango
Paul Kagame continued his campaign in Southern Province in what could be considered his home area as he was born in present-day Ruhango district. The crowd was ecstatic as he campaigned with his family, his wife and children joined him on the campaign circuit as he rallied the masses to his cause. In his second rally of the day he drew massive crowds at Kibingo, while the earlier rally had attracted more than 100,000. He is campaigning in the southern region in what is a gruelling schedule taking in two rallies a day and taking him to all parts of the country.
Amid chants of “Kagame Oye” and “RPF Oye” he took to the stage to address jubilant crowds dressed in RPF colours and singing RPF songs. He addressed the crowd and commended them for turning up in big numbers. He hailed them for being united and rejecting the politics of divisionism and emphasised that the politics of division had no place in the modern Rwanda.
The RPF candidate also said that since the area was producing more food, there would be a flour mill and food-processing factory constructed there to boost food security in the area. He promised that the whole district would have electricity soon.
However, the biggest cheer came when President Kagame announced that basic education will be extended from the current 9-year basic system to include 3 years of secondary, making 12-years of education mandatory.
He said “development based on good governance according to best practices and interests of the people are at the heart of RPF policies.”
The huge crowd which attended the rally was happy at the groundbreaking announcement that basic education would be expanded to 12 years. Rwanda has seen a major changes in education policy with a change from French and Kinyarwanda to English exclusively. Basic primary education has also been extended from 7 years to 9 years.
The campaign continues tomorrow with rallies in Nyanza, and Huye the second city.
Presidential campaigns begin today
By Edwin Musoni
KIGALI - Canvassing for votes for the forthcoming Presidential election kicks off today with all the four candidates meeting voters in several parts of the country.
President Paul Kagame represents Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Prosper Higiro, Liberal Party (PL), Dr Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Dr Alvera Mukabaramba of Party of Peace and Concord (PPC).
Higiro and Ntawukuriryayo are new entrants in the presidential race.
The campaigns are expected to begin with colourful rallies by all presidential candidates. RPF’s Chairman and presidential candidate will hold his first rally at Amahoro National Stadium.
At the stadium, President Kagame, is expected to officially unveil his plan for the nation in the next seven years if he is re-elected.
Liberal Party’s Higiro is will be addressing a rally in Kirehe and Ngoma districts of the Eastern Province.
PSD will start its campaigns in the Southern Province while PPC will hold its first rally in Rwamagana District of the Eastern Province.
Meanwhile, latest information from the National Electoral Commission (NEC) indicates that so far the voters’ list has 5,293,883 people although the official declaration of the final voters’ list and polling stations is scheduled for July 23.
The printing of ballot papers is scheduled to end by 30, July 2010 while preparation of polling centres and stations will kick off on August 7th to 8th, 2010; the declaration of provisional and final election results to be done not later than August 11th and 17th, 2010 respectively.
Source: The New Times
Rwanda to open new embassies abroad
The government is planning to open its first ever diplomatic missions in the West African countries of Senegal and Nigeria, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo has said. Mushikiwabo said this yesterday while appearing before the Upper Chamber of Parliament to brief the Senators on the state of diplomatic relations between the nation and the rest of the world. She informed the Senators that the decision to open these embassies was derived from the government’s desire to cultivate relations with many countries from all corners of the world.
“The pace at which Rwanda is developing is quite fast. We realise that we have not previously cultivated deep West African diplomatic ties but the government will be opening embassies in Senegal and Nigeria to begin to tackle that,” she said. Mushikiwabo also informed the Senators that the government was also focusing on cultivating relations in Asia. “We are currently focusing on Asia too and hope to open an embassy in the United Arab Emirates city of Abu Dhabi mainly for economic advantages,”she said. Mushikiwabo also talked about the relations with neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) stressing that they were getting better.
She pointed to the advantages that would come with the DRC government’s decision to join the East African Community (EAC). “It would be good for DRC to join the EAC because the similarities between that country and all the member states are many. Its obvious it would pick alot from the Bloc just as the body would pick do so,” she said.
The Minister highlighted the government’s plan to continue working with the DRC government to further improve the lives of the citizens of both countries citing plans to share the fibre optic cable and methane gas among others. Mushikiwabo’s visit is in line with the Senate’s duty to control the government and will today be followed by the appearence of the Minister of Education, Charles Muligande, who will appear in the Lower Chamber to update lawmakers on the state of our universities.
Source: The New Times
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