KIGALI - Works to install the printing press of the Rwanda Office of Information (Orinfor) are expected to finally get underway later this week after months of standoff.

Orinfor director Oscar Kimanuka confirmed the development in an interview yesterday.

"We have already signed a contract with the company that is supposed to construct the structure into which the web machine will be installed.

We’re expecting experts (who will fix it) to come and give specifications to the contractors in two days,” Kimanuka said.

He said the experts will be sent by a UK-based supplier.
Kimanuka said that currently the Ministry of Commerce, which previously occupied the building, are moving out their property in preparation for the construction.

The machines were imported earlier this year but the installation was delayed after the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (Rema) blocked it, saying that the site was located in a wetland.

Kimanuka said that it was later agreed in principle that the machine be installed for non specified period of time.

"We do not know how long, whether it is three or four years. Rema is better placed to answer that.”

However, the Rema director general, Dr Rose Mukankomeje could not comment as she said she was in a meeting by press time.

The structures which are former headquarters of the ministry of commerce, industry, investment promotion, tourism and cooperatives, (MINICOM) are located in Gikondo industrial area.

"The company that we contracted to do the work is called ELCOM,” Orinfor boss said.

The state-of-the-art machine which was imported in installments has been in the stores of the Rwanda General Stores (Magerwa) where it is said that Orinfor was paying a daily $100 in storage charges.

That means that the government has parted with millions for that service.

"The machines which are in many boxes have been moved to the location where they are to be installed to avoid the storage charges,” Shyaka Kanuma, who heads the committee of journalists charged with following up the process to install the machine, said.

Kanuma is the Managing Director of Focus, a weekly newspaper.

The three-man committee was selected during a recent retreat between President Paul Kagame and journalists.

Other members are Mark Ramba and Jean Bosco Gatete, the chief editors of vernacular papers, Umuseke and Umulinzi, respectively.

"What we have observed in the few days of the committee is that Oscar (Kimanuka) is doing a very good job; there were a lot of controversies surrounding the installation of this machine, but so far we are convinced it will soon be installed,” Kanuma said.

President Kagame, who has on several occasions expressed concern over lack of a modern printer that caters for the needs of local media houses, has consistently expressed concern that relevant authorities had failed to have the machine installed even after its acquisition.

Several local print media houses have for the past years decried high printing costs and poor quality, forcing many to print their newspapers from neighbouring countries especially Uganda.

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