Malnutrition is caused by lack of food because many Rwandans can’t afford to get food on their plates, yet Kagame tells them it is caused by carelessness. Mr. President when you were suffering from malnutrition some time back, was it carelessness?

President Paul Kagame admitted that malnutrition is rampant in the country; however, saying that it is carelessness or indifferent as he argues that it’s a ‘self-inflicted’, the President is careless himself.

How can the Rwandan Head of State who owns private jets, who travels on daily basis to get business for his companies could argue that it’s a challenge that needs leaders’ special attention.  Why should you see now that it’s a challenge after 20 years when you are only entangled in embezzling state funds or killing your political opponents?

I will argue that he should have known that all the Money ends in his mega projects and few Rwandans can afford a meal.

Indeed, the President was very insensitive and arrogant when he said that it’s out of carelessness, but who will dare to challenge him and tell him the truth?

“I think, to some extent, this is out of our own carelessness, to some extent, self inflicted, and I have to tell our leaders here that we will have to pay attention to this; and make sure that we eradicate it because we have the tools to do that,” Kagame said.

The survey, commissioned by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), is compiled every three years. But the statistics that goes to the outside readers and reality on the ground is different.

Accordingly the so called statistics provides an update on the level of poverty focusing on poverty as measured in consumption terms, if this is the level that went public, then its more than the public knows, the reality could be catastrophic.

The report also highlights other trend dimensions of living conditions captured in other surveys that complement and provide a holistic understanding of poverty and living conditions.

Imagine that the RPF findings showed that the prevalence of stunted children has gradually declined over time, to about 38 per cent in 2014/15, but malnutrition remains a significant challenge. This is again a lie in a contradiction discourse, we know that RPF will always make their own statistics to feed the international community and tourists in the country, but the reality in Rwanda, “rurakinga babiri”

How can Kagame say malnutrition is preventable without food?

“I want to call upon you, and in some polite way, warning officials in charge to pull up their socks,” said Kagame. This poor local leaders will always pay the price, because they act as shock absorbers for the failures of President Kagame, because according to the former Prime Minister Damien Habamuremyi, it’s only Kagame in the country who can’t do wrong, what a shame!

This is how he sells his brand of lies “We see a lot of improvement in agriculture, you are aware of the cow per family, chickens running around in rural areas, you see vegetables, it’s about putting all that on a plate,” he added.

The local leaders will sing the song of the Rwandan self styled King,  after his speech officials vowed to embark on a similar overhauled study that will inform strategic means and approaches to have the issue resolved.

According to Finance minister Claver Gatete, fighting malnutrition will require credible measures that will supplement ongoing national projects that aim to fight poverty and eliminate malnutrition.

“There has been commendable implementation of one cow per poor family (scheme), we have also been supporting school feeding at the primary level but this is not enough for malnutrition. What we are going to do from here is to consult and see what kind of measures as government, institutions and local government can be used to eradicate malnutrition,” he said.

Similar research conducted earlier by the UNDP, however, indicated that although the government had strengthened programmes to eradicate the condition, more money was yet to be raised to implement poultry projects for families. Unknown to the outsiders , the project to buy all the so called cows was an RPF project and the tenders went to the RPF subsidiaries.

 

Under the RPF programme, people are expected to keep two hens in their home for eggs that will supplement several other government programmes like one cow per family; one cup of milk per child per day ,both at school and home on top of (Agakonok’ Umwana), a traditional pot set aside for children’s food.

With the mask on the international community officials, the UN resident coordinator and the country director of United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP), said there will be need to teach the science of nutrition to make families aware of what constitutes nutritious meals.

Even the UN Officials play diplomacy if they don’t want to be labeled by Kagame as working with FDLR, the UN Official without choice  expressed optimism that a factory to produce nutritious foods, which is in the pipeline, will significantly enhance efforts to fight malnutrition across the country.

The last Cabinet meeting endorsed the Rwanda Nutritious Foods Factory, a joint venture between the government and a private company which will produce nutritious food for babies, pregnant or breastfeeding women. But we know that this Company belongs to crystal ventures chain of companies which are owned by Kagame. It’s Kagame who will not suffer from malnutrition but not the Rwandan people.

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels.