Youth to be trained in patriotism The government has introduced patriotism training to encourage voluntarism and national service among the youth, the chairperson of the Itorero National Taskforce, Boniface Rucagu, has said. Rucagu said all students leaving secondary school will be encouraged to take part in community service once the scheme is launched.  "National service means voluntary service for youth which was formerly known as Urugerero, it extends to the pre-colonial period, where Rwandans were being trained, sacrificed their time and worked for their community,” Rucagu said, adding that the scheme will operate alongside the current civic education training (Itorero).

He assured that this will be more effective after the students and other people understand it. Rucagu said they have not yet decided how long the training will take but it will be decided basing on popular public opinion. Since 2009, secondary school leavers undergo civic and political education training locally known as Itorero. Bank Populaire denies hiking cattle stocking billsBanque Populaire du Rwanda (BPR) dismissed findings by the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources which concluded that the cattle the bank distributed under the Gir’inka cattle stocking programme were overvalued. The report by the ministry says there were many irregularities in the programme. Since 2007, 3,590 farmers received cows under the scheme, of which 795 got them at inflated prices.

The ministry’s inquiry indicates that the beneficiaries were swindled approximately Rwf 146 million and yet it wants farmers to repay the loans based on the type of the cows they received and their actual market values. But speaking to the media, Joseph Ntambara, in charge of recovery at BPR, said his bank did not overvalue the cows as the report claims, but offered loans to individual farmers depending on the loan contract and the amount of money which each client had indicated. Ntambara vowed his bank would conduct its own investigations. Ntambara noted that the Gir’inka programme is still ongoing but stressed that a memorandum of understanding has now been signed between the bank and the beneficiaries of the programme.National Census targets 390,000 families a day President Paul Kagame and his family were among the citizens who were enumerated late this week as the National Institute of Statistics (NISR) started to conduct the fourth Population and Housing Census. Details about the first family were recorded by the Director General of NISR, Yusuf Murangwa, at State House in Kiyovu, Nyarugenge District. President Kagame responded to questions about the size of his family, details of the location of his residence, among others. About 390,752 families were scheduled to be enumerated yesterday.

A total of 2.7 million questionnaires have been prepared for this census and up to 24,422 enumerators were recruited, trained and readied for the exercise. Every enumerator was tasked to count 16 families daily, according to Prosper Mutijima, the national census coordinator at NISR. Mutijima said there was no official time for enumerating citizens, explaining that the exercise will be conducted depending on the appointments. The two-week exercise is expected to come up with comprehensive socio-economic indicators which will be used for economic planning.People in Diaspora will be counted at Rwanda’s embassies in their respective host countries.UN asked to replace Ugandan crashed helicoptersThe Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, Ambassador Boubacar Diarra, has urged the United Nations (UN) and the international community to expedite the replacement and deployment of Uganda’s helicopters that crashed on their way to Somalia. Three Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) Mi-24 choppers crashed on Sunday in the jungles of Mt. Kenya. These were part of a fleet of four that left Soroti to Garissa en route for Somalia for war with the Al-Shabaab militants. As AMISOM continues to expand into open country, the deployment of these long awaited enablers, authorized under UN Security Council Resolution 2036, remains critical for operational, as well as logistical support and medical evacuation.

Diarra said despite the setback, AMISOM remained committed to improving the security of the people of Somalia. The helicopters landed at Eldoret over the weekend and later left for Nanyuki where they were scheduled to refuel before flying to Garissa. Health centre officials arrested over forged documentsTwo workers at Kinigi Health Centre in Musanze District are in police custody for alleged forgery of receipts that were discovered at the accountant’s office.The duo is Anastaze Habiyakare, the Head of the health centre (also chairperson of the management committee) and Jeanine Hategekimana, a worker in the accountant’s office. Security sources say they were tipped by some members of the management committee who expressed dissatisfaction over Hategekimana’s misconduct in writing receipts after receiving money from patients. Kagame rallies RPF cadresThe Chairperson of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), President Paul Kagame, on Thursday told senior cadres of the party that it is not characteristic of the Rwandan people to let go of their dignity without any resistance. The President made the remarks during the party’s National Executive Committee meeting held in Kigali, where he gave a briefing on the situation and back ground to the Congo crisis. Rwanda has been continuously blamed for the crisis despite lack of credible evidence.The allegations have resulted to some donors cutting or withholding aid to Rwanda then later suggesting that the deferred support will be extended if Rwanda behaves well."What does behaving well mean? How do you measure good behavior?” Kagame wondered. He observed that when such decisions are made in an attempt to punish Rwandans, yet they are based on false allegations, it is as good as taking away the dignity of Rwandan people which they should not accept. President Kagame told the leaders that they can resist such attempts by working hard towards developing the country.Solidarity fund to focus on rural developmentFunds collected through the newly created Agaciro Development Fund (AgDF) will be invested into projects aimed at improving services in rural areas, the Minister of Finance, John Rwangombwa, said on Thursday. The fund is a product of last year’s national dialogue (Umushyikirano), during which it was decided that the country devises mechanisms to mobilise voluntary local resources to help accelerate development projects.