The Long Form Podcast

Human Rights Watch recently released a report titled “Join us or die: Rwanda’s extraterritorial repression”, in which they accuse the Government of Rwanda of committing human rights abuses on Rwandan nationals living abroad.

In reaction, local writer and activist Gatete Nyiringabo Ruhumuliza, penned a rebuttal titled ‘Human Rights Watch: Rwanda’s ‘Uninvited Savior’. 

We shall discuss the Report in question, Gatete’s rebuttal and the way forward for the Government of Rwanda in this week’s episode of The Long Form podcast. 

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Rwanda is many things. On one hand, it is among the poorest countries in the world and on the other hand, it is, to me at least, one of the most forward-thinking nations on the globe. Actually, when you think about it, the lack of resources perhaps creates the innovation. 

Let’s look back at what’s been done so far. Rwanda partnered with an American startup, Zipline, to deliver lifesaving drugs to rural health centers by drone. Then it partnered with Starlink, Elon Musk’s company, to provide high speed internet to rural schools. 

The country, made up of citizens that earn an average of a thousand dollars a year, has still found the means to launch satellites into space, and found coding academies. 

How is this possible? What are the driving forces behind it? What are the tangible benefits? What are the risks involved? And what does Rwanda look like, technologically speaking, in the next couple of years and decades? And how does Rwanda’s Artificial Intelligence policy fit into all of this?

To answer these questions, I am joined on the Long Form podcast this week by Paula Ingabire,  Rwanda's Minister of ICT and Innovation

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Rwanda, like many other developing nations, has borne the brunt of climate change. We’ve seen searing hot temperatures over the last long dry season and now, when it rains, its not the gentle drizzle of the past. Rather we suffer rain storms that destroy farmers fields, and cause killer landslides. 

What is most unfair about this climate change is the fact that we aren’t the cause of it, but rather the victims. It is the industrialized countries that have put all of us at risk, with their love of fossil fuels. They are the ones who have cut down all their trees and replaced them with cities. 

 In fact, it is us, the developing nations, with our forests and swamps, that have kept the temperatures from rising even further. Because we have, it is only right and fair that we get something back for our efforts to push back the tides. And that is where carbon trading comes in. And that’s what Paul Foster specializes in. 

Paul Foster is Executive Director and Founder of Co2 Capital, a company that provides technology-based carbon offset solutions

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Produced by LF Media 

It’s been a trying few months for our pockets. Food prices are consistently rising and with new prices for fuel, transport costs will be higher. This will surely make life harder for each and everyone of us. In addition to all of this pressures, our national currency, the Rwandan franc, has been losing value against the US dollar, leading to what podcast listener called, an issue of “inflation, inflation, inflation”. 

 So what is going on, how did we find ourselves in this situation and more importantly how do we get out of it? 

 To help us make sense of the inflation issue, as well as other fiscal challenges, I am joined this week by the Deputy Governor of Rwandan Central Bank, Soraya Hakuziyaremye. 

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Produced by LF Media 

Rwanda is just emerging out of its long dry season, and as if often the case during that time, food prices have risen around the country. 

What is particularly shocking this year however, is just how high prices of our staple foods have become. Kigali residents are seeing prices of potatoes, beans and rice double or even triple. 

The question that I, along with many other people, ask ourselves is, what is going on? Have our farmers simply stopped going out to their fields to farm? Or are we dealing with something much more sinister? A food mafia of sorts! 

 To help answer these questions, I am joined this week on the Long Form by Antoine Kajangwe, Director General-Trade and Investment at Ministry of Trade and Industry. 

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FDLR, FNL, and the other genocidal militia operating out of the forests and hills of Eastern DRC have one goal in mind, the violently overthrow of the Rwandan government and commencement of another genocide. 

In 2008, Chris McGreal, a journalist from The Guardian, travelled to the jungles of Eastern DRC and reported on the FDLR.

In one extremely chilling exchange with a 13-year-old FDLR militiaman, who left Rwanda as a baby on his mother’s back, Chris revealed the hateful ideology that powered FDLR’s fight. 

In the words of the teenager, “it was the Tutsis, the inyenzi, who were to blame for his predicament. He had to kill them. He hated them all. They stole his country, Rwanda - a Hutu country, as he called it - and he wanted them dead”. 

With such hate, it almost seems impossible that someone like that can be brought back to Rwanda and turned into a useful, productive citizen. It seems a task too steep, but it is not. 

Since 1997, the Rwanda Demobilization and Reintegration Commission has turning terrorists into citizens. 

To explain how this is possible, I’m joined on the podcast by Francis Musoni, The Secretary General of Rwanda Demobilization and Reintegration Commission. 

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Over two months ago, veteran journalist, Marc Hoogsteyns, became the very first international reporter to pay a visit to the M23 rebel strongholds in Eastern DRC. 

As he recounted during an interview that he had on this very podcast in July, he not only spoke to a couple of M23 junior officers, he also met and interviewed young, Rwandan-born FDLR fighters who had been captured on the battle front. 

Taking advantage of a lull in the fighting Marc last week went back to the DRC, and got the opportunity to not only interview the president of M23, Betrand Bisimwa, he was able to talk to senior commanders, talk to them about their future military plans as well as witness daily life in the rebel stronghold. 

He's back on this platform to share his insights on M23’s battle readiness, what normal life looks like in their zones of control and what the political arm of the rebel movement expects from not only the DRC government but also the region as well. 

Marc is a Belgian freelance journalist who has been living and working in Africa for 25 years. He has made reports for BBC, ABC-Australia, TV5 and Reuters. He also manages Kivu Press Agency

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Produced by LF Media 

The announcement that Rwanda will partner with German-Canadian company, Dual Fluid, to conduct a Critical Demonstration Experiment is probably the biggest news this month. Why? Because this experiment is the first step in Rwanda’s nuclear journey. 

This partnership is really exciting for me because this means that Rwanda is on the cusp of joining the exclusive club of nuclear states. And for a country like ours that needs cheap, sufficient power for both people and industries, nuclear is a game changer 

But the thing is, after the excitement, comes the fear. When you think of nuclear fusion, and its ability to create power, you also think about what happens when things go wrong. You think about the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear disasters. 

So, to discuss not just Rwanda’s partnership with Dual Fluid, but also what nuclear regulators are doing to ensure that the expected nuclear power generation doesn’t become a hazard for the millions of people that call Rwanda home, I am joined this week by Dr. Fidele Ndahayo, the CEO of the Rwanda Atomic Energy Board. 

Created in 2020, the mission of the Rwanda Atomic Energy Board is to promote the peaceful use of atomic energy for sustainable socio-economic development. 

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Adonis Filer currently plays point guard for the Rwanda Energy Group (REG) basketball team. He holds the BAL record for the most assists in a single game. Adonis has also represented  Rwanda in the Afrobasket tournament. 

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois in 1993, Adonis Jovon Filer started his basketball career in high school and sustained to college and beyond. Adonis played for the Clemson Tigers and Florida Atlantic teams in college.   

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Produced by LF Media 

With the announcement yesterday of the new partnership with German superclub, Bayern Munich, it brings to three, the number of European football teams that Visit Rwanda partners with. The first two being Arsenal FC, in England, and Paris Saint Germain in France. 

What is especially noteworthy is that this new partnership comes exactly half a decade since the first one was signed with Arsenal in 2018. 

In the year that the first Visit Rwanda partnership was announced Rwanda earned $425 million from tourism. Amazingly, five years later, and despite the global slowdown as a result of the covid pandemic, Rwanda is well on the way to earning over half a billion dollars this year. 

To discuss the new partnership with Bayern Munich, as well as what the years ahead look for the tourism industry, I am joined this week by Clare Akamazi, the CEO of the Rwanda Development Board. 

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Produced by LF Media