Ministry halts NGO’s activities

The Ministry of local government(Minaloc) has directed that all activities of Hope for the Orphans to Skills and Training (HOSTA), a local Non Government Organization, be halted for allegedly forging operational documents. Sources from the ministry said that the management of the NGO had duped Kicukiro district and constructed a Church instead of a Health centre. The sources claim HOSTA forged some of the documents it submitted to Kicukiro district, a claim Hosta’s leaders have repeatedly denied. Documents available indicate that the NGO had only been permitted to construct a heath centre not a church. When the district discovered the anomaly, it halted construction . A letter dated October 6, of which The New Times has obtained a copy, indicates that the ministry directed HOSTA’s businesses be halted immediately. The letter was signed by Minister Protais Musoni and was addressed to HOSTA’s president, Pastor Jackson Mudahinyuka. “Because HOSTA has continuously disregarded our good advice, I regret to inform you that you stop all your activities as soon as you receive this letter,” it reads in part. When contacted, Pastor Mudahinyuka protested against the ministry’s move. He said that it was depriving him of hard earned money he had already injected into the project. Later, Pastor Mudahinyuka who walked to The New Times offices on Wednesday to ‘set’ the record ‘straight’ described the move to close his project as too harsh. He said that the reports that he breached the agreement with the district authorities were baseless. On May 16, the district wrote to Pastor Mudahinyuka stopping him from continuing with his unauthorized construction of a Church “The pastor came here and said that he had money from donors in Japan to build a training centre but we told him the district had no interest in this,” Florence Kairaba, the acting Mayor of Kicukiro District, explained in an interview at her Kicukiro office. The district put it to him that a health centre was on its highest priorities. “He accepted but later changed without our consent,” she explained. Early this year, the government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) donated about Frw 137m to HOSTA, Amanda Marga Universal Relief Team Rwanda (AMURT-Rwanda) and the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP). Ends

National

Ministry halts NGO’s activities