Weekly review

Kigali facelift to cost Rwf 1.5bn Kigali City Council (KCC) is set to spend Rwf1.5 billion on enhancing the city’s hygiene levels as well as beauty. This was revealed mid this week by Jean d’Arc Gakuba, the Vice Mayor in charge of social affairs in Kigali, while addressing stakeholders at Nyamirambo Stadium The Vice Mayor urged them to plant flowers and trees alongside their office premises and homes and to also rehabilitate roads in their communities. She said that new programs will see all schools, hospitals, churches and government institutions plant gardens and trees Rwanda health sector impresses US medics A group of 14 medical doctors from the US are in the country for a one-week Continuing Medical Education (CME) programme. They commended the progress the country has registered in improving the health sector. The doctors, who are in the country on a programme aimed at providing American and Rwandan physicians with advanced knowledge on the treatment of tropical diseases in developing countries, said that government’s efforts to improve the sector and the well-being of the people was very impressive. The visiting medics cited the community medical insurance scheme, Mutuelle de Sante, as one of the best health initiatives the government has successfully implemented.30% of the land registered countrywide The Registrar of Land Titles has so far registered 30 percent of the land around the country. This was disclosed, on Wednesday, by Dr. Emmanuel Nkurunzinza, the Director General and Registrar, National Land Centre, while speaking to The New Times after the demarcation and adjudication of the British High Commission premises in Kigali. Out of the country’s estimated 8 million plots of land, over 2.4 million plots have been registered so far. The government made it a policy to register all land in the country. The land centre targets to register all plots of land in Kigali City and 50 percent of the land in other parts of the country by end of next June. Scribes’ body launches report on August polls The Rwanda Journalist Association (ARJ) on Tuesday released its maiden report on the media coverage of the August 9 presidential election, which were overwhelmingly won by President Paul Kagame. The 40 –page document provides a general impression of media coverage a week before the campaigns and partly concludes that, among other findings, the majority of news reports were unbiased. MHC cautions Umusingi newspaper The Media High Council (MHC) advised Umusingi newspaper, a Kinyarwanda weekly, to review its content, which the council says are in conflict with principles governing professional journalism, or face sanctions as stipulated in the media law. According to Patrice Mulama, the executive secretary of MHC, the contents in the Umusingi news paper published in the past few months heavily mixed personal opinions with news stories. Ends