Focus Media (Kigali)
8 July 2009
opinion
In his most recent press conference, President Kagame was unsparing in his criticism of members of the local media.
Journalists in Rwanda, said the President, are themselves corrupt. Speaking slowly and deliberately the President launched further criticisms. Journalists do not do thorough or proper research of whatever they write or say, he said. "They do not look for information, expecting instead that it will come to them." "How do you expect someone to bring damning information about himself to you?" asked the President. "You have to diligently look for that information yourself."
The President clearly is not impressed with us, and he let us have it. And events in recent days, when a couple of journalists and a third accomplice were arrested allegedly trying to extort half a million francs from a businesswoman seem to have buttressed what Mr. Kagame accuses journalists of, at least as far as corruption is concerned.
But in his displeasure Mr. Kagame seems to have forgotten the golden rule when you are criticizing any group of people: the condemnation can't be blanket. And that goes even for Rwandan journalists.
I will be the first to agree that the local media indeed is in a parlous state, and lack of professionalism is way up there as one of its main problems.
But even among members of our Fourth Estate there are a few exceptions here and there; there are those who endeavor to do their job well and who every now and then present an honest, balanced, well-researched news report despite many odds (the best example I can give is Orinfor employees who work under the most thankless conditions - dilapidated studios and offices, bad salaries, appallingly poor management that is an added factor in their misery, management that cannot ensure reporters have even the most basic equipment such as microphones or recorders, or even studio makeup, leave alone decent cameras - but bring the news to Rwandans morning, day and night).
I am sure the President would not for instance go as far as saying that Rwandan cabinet ministers are a corrupt, incompetent and lazy lot even as evidence is there to support the assertion if he made it. Why? 1) Because the criticism would be unfair, for there are good, honest, competent ministers in our government, and 2) it would collectively diminish the dignity of these public servants if the Prez decided to publicly unload on them.
And neither would the President make the following statements about members of the judicial system: our judges are corrupt; our prosecutors take bribes; they are incompetent and they will lock up people before making a thorough investigation, etc etc. All of which statements are true by the way, but cannot apply to all and sundry.
Yes, we have problems in the Fourth Estate, but scathing criticism from the Head of State will not help solve those problems (much as Mr. Kagame is at the forefront of efforts to develop a better media in the country).
The bottom line is the media we have in Rwanda is a true representation of all other institutions in the country, both in the public and private sectors.
Corruption (which, one cannot forget to mention, Kagame is fighting tooth and nail), and incompetence are everywhere you look. Dashed or botched government plans, unattained promises, unreached goals are ample evidence of lack of capacity and required human resources in all our institutions.
The media happens to be in the firing line only because by its nature it happens to be the most publicly visible sector (who else after all is on national television every month interacting with the President?).
But we will become better as the country grows, as the private sector (the existence of a vibrant and sizable private sector being the essential precondition for a strong, vibrant media) grows and as pay scales in the industry improve to attract and retain talent.
The Remera plot grab and the possibility the President has been misinformed about it
Among the issues raised at the press conference was a story we published in this newspaper on 11 May headlined 'Mutsindashyaka, Nyinawagaga give an old man grief.'
We reported in the story that former Kigali City Mayor and now State Minister for Primary and Secondary School Education Theoneste Mutsindashyaka conspired with Gasabo Mayor Claudine Nyinawagaga to grab the plot of one Camille (we prefer to use the Kinyarwanda spelling of his name, Kamiri) Batsinda.
When a journalist, referring to our story, asked the President what he would do about the offending officials, the President replied that he had different information from what he had read in the media (meaning in The Rwanda Focus).
Mr. Kagame however did not say whether his information contradicted ours in its entirety, whether it was only in part, or what it was we had gotten wrong, or right for that matter.
I was taken aback when in the next breath the President then launched his criticism of journalists as corrupt and as people who write things without properly researching them or going to the pains of looking for the right information.
Was he implying that we made up the story out of whole cloth? I asked myself.
Was he implying (by talking about corruption) that, Kamiri Batsinda had corrupted us to write the story? (In which case, I asked myself as I sat there listening to the Head of State, since he says he has information on the case and so he knows about Batsinda, maybe he would ask himself why a journalist would go looking to be corrupted by a semi-peasant old man who lives in Gahanga? I mean there are richer pickings chez Nyinawagaga or Mutsindashyaka, that is if you are inclined to be corrupted to write stories).
We agree that at this newspaper we are not perfect; there is much that even we look at and see which indeed falls far short of the ideal professional standards. And every now and then we get a story wrong, in which case we welcome corrections which we publish in their entirety as required by the law.
But one criticism we at The Rwanda Focus will not accept is that we do not look for information before we publish. We certainly won't accept it in the case of Nyinawagaga and Mutsindashyaka's plot grab.
Here is what I did when I embarked on that story: I packed a pen and notebook and drove to Remera and saw the plot which is at the Sonatubes (Sonatibe) junction; I went to Gahanga, listened to Batsinda's story and saw (and got copies) of the following documents from him: the fiches cadastrale and autorisation de batir, both documents that prove the house belonged to one Emile Butera who was Batsinda's brother and who died during the Genocide. I talked, on phone, to an old woman called Felisita Kasine, a sister in law of Batsinda's (who, to be more precise, was a sister in law of the late Butera) and she said indeed Batsinda is the head of the family and it is him the custodian of Butera's property. Batsinda inherited the plot and the house on it from Butera and they are (were) his property as per our laws.
I also obtained a copy of a demolition order form signed by Theoneste Mutsindashyaka (headed in ungrammatical English thus: ORDER OF DEMOLISHING FORM and in proper Kinyarwanda, ICYEMEZO CYO GUSENYA) on the 18th of November in 2004.
I got copies of letters signed by Nyinawagaga addressed to Batsinda directing him to give up his plot. I went to the Ombudsman's office and got copies of reports on the disputes on the plot. I tried to get in touch with Mutsindashyaka on the phone (I was only doing my duty as a journalist, but anyone (rubanda rugufi) who has ever tried to raise Mutsindashyaka on the phone knows it is a practical impossibility to get this distinguished gentleman via that device. I will admit the thought crossed my mind to go to his office ask for an interview, but life it too short to go trying to get appointments with Mutsindashyaka; I learnt that lesson one time in 2007, when the man was governor of Eastern Province, when I spent half a day waiting in the lounge despite the fact his personal assistant had arranged an appointment.)
I talked to Nyinawagaga. I talked to neighbors of Batsinda's plot. I talked to the new owner of the plot, businessman Augustine Bizimana. I consulted a copy I have of the law on expropriation of land in the public interest (Law no. 18/2007 of 19/04/2007).
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