Rwandan artistes slam Kayirebwa, Munyenyezi stateless

LAST WEEK life was tough for Rwandan media houses that had to deal with Belgium-based Rwandan traditional artiste, Cecile Kayirebwa (pictured right). Kayirebwa stirred Rwanda’s music industry with a lawsuit against local media houses that saw her awarded compensation for playing her music without her consent. But Kayirebwa’s colleagues were not about to join her to celebrate her court victory. On Friday, several local artistes condemned her legal action, saying she has lived in Belgium for decades and therefore does not understand the Rwandan context which, according to them, is different from Europe where musicians get royalties for their patents. After the ruling, owners of radio stations predicted doom for Rwanda’s creative industries. Contact FM proprietor, Albert Rudatsimburwa said in an interview with this newspaper on Friday: “…without the media, you don’t have a music industry. The creative industry here is losing because they had been extended an olive branch by the media, which may change after this ruling. Now everyone is going to think about personal interest instead of collective interest.”But let’s face it: like Kayirebwa, Rwandan media houses also believe in intellectual property. Just ask them about their own intellectual property, such as their patents or trademarks! The truth is that media houses and artistes need each other. In fact, many of these radio stations have no purpose without music! So, instead of condemning Kayirebwa, I think people from both the media and creative communities should work together to find a right balance between copyright protection and creator compensation. Munyenyezi now stateless, to wrinkle in jail“The defendant’s certificate of naturalization is hereby declared cancelled,” US District Court presiding judge Steven McAuliffe ruled on Friday, after finding Beatrice Munyenyezi guilty of having lied on immigration forms about her role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. And even though Munyenyezi did not kill anyone herself, prosecutors described her as a piece in the “machinery” of the Genocide. She was deemed just as guilty of those crimes because she helped identify Tutsis to be slaughtered at a roadblock outside her family’s hotel in the former Butare prefecture. Munyenyezi, who will be sentenced in June, faces 10 years imprisonment followed by deportation. A little more about Beatrice Munyenyezi: She is the wife of Arsene Shalom Ntahobari, a former militia leader in Habyarimana’s genocidal regime. Ntahobari, together with his mother Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, were sentenced to life in prison after the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) found them guilty of committing Genocide.