Kanungu Magistrate's court has fined Nelson Kagote Twinamatsiko, the manager of Kanungu FM Shs 200,000 after pleading guilty to assaulting a fellow employee and radio presenter Anita Tumuramye. 

The incident occurred on January 26 at the radio premises. The radio belongs to Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the minister for Information Communication Technology and National Guidance, and Kinkiizi East Constituency MP.                

The prosecution told court that Twinamatsiko assaulted Tumuramye when she demanded her commission off a school advert worth Shs 200,000 that she'd brought to the radio station. For the advert, Tumuramye was duly entitled to a 20 per cent commission (Shs 40,000) in line with the station's guidelines. 

When Tumuramye tried to inquire from Twinamatsiko about the commission, he instead slapped her on the face which made her bleed from the nose.

Twinamatsiko further continued to drag Tumuramye to the ground. He was later arrested and paraded before the court on February 2 and was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm contrary to 236 of The Penal Code Act. Asked to take a plea he pleaded not guilty to the charges and was remanded.        

But re-appearing before the same court today Wednesday afternoon, Twinamatsiko made a u-turn and pleaded guilty to the charges.  In his ruling, Asanansio Mukobi, the Kanungu grade one magistrate ordered Twinamatsiko to pay Shs 200,000 as a fine or serve an 8-month sentence in prison. Twinamatsiko opted to pay the fine. Mukobi also advised that since the two are workmates, they must reconcile.     

Tumuramye later told our reporter that she has no personal vendetta against Twinamatsiko, and has no problem with reconciliation. - URN/The Observer

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused his Congolese counterpart Félix Tshisekedi of dishonouring several agreements on addressing the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tensions between the African Great Lakes region neighbours continue to raise as DR Congo accuses Rwanda of invading its territory “disguised in M23 rebels”. 

In an address to diplomats in Rwanda on Wednesday night, Mr Kagame criticised Mr Tshisekedi of failing to address Congo’s internal issue and putting the blame on Rwanda.

Kinshasa authorities haven’t reacted to Mr Kagame’s remarks.

“This person has dishonoured dozens of agreements he has made with people… including even last time in Bujumbura”, Mr Kagame said. 

“We discuss things in the open, he participated, we wrote a communiqué, giving people of what we discussed and the way forward. The communiqué is read, but the next day an opposite communiqué is read in Kinshasa,” he added.

Last weekend’s East African heads of state meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi, directed “immediate ceasefire”, “withdrawal of all foreign groups” and need for “dialogue among all the parties”.

A day later, Congolese government spokesperson said they would “only abide” by the November agreements in Luanda to end the conflict.  News Day