FAITH Reporters: January 2023

Kigali King Faisal Hospital fined Rwf125m for medical negligence

Kigali court ordered King Faisal Hospital in Rwanda to pay over Rwf125 million (approx $125,000) to a family whose child suffered permanent damage at the time of birth.

A woman undergoing C-Section surgical delivery. King Faisal Hospital lost a case in which former client sued it for taking too long to help the mother to deliver in the C-Section which cause fatigue and permanent damage to the baby

By Kelly Rwamapera

Gasabo intermediate court today 27th January 2023 ruled that the amount would be shared between King Faisal Hospital and its insurer SONARWA General Insurance Company.

The court ordered “King Faisal Hospital to pay Rwf105 million [approx $105000] and the hospital’s insurer, SONARWA, to pay Rwf20 million [approx $20,000]”

The court also ordered King Faisal Hospital to pay the plaintiff Rwf500,000 in litigation fees, Rwf2 million in lawyer’s fees and Rwf20,000 for court fees.

A Kigali family dragged the Central African Country’s leading referral hospital to court for negligence against the mother in labour that permanently affected the unborn baby.

The family argued that in early January 2015, King Faisal Hospital's medics took long hours to take the mother to the Caesarean Section as had been prescribed by a hospital doctor who had been handling the expectant mother.

The doctor had argued that the mother had narrow gaps between the hip bones or what he called an “elective Caesarean Section due to borderline pelvis”

The woman took nearly 24 hours in labour, requesting a C-section delivery and presenting the recommendations which had been written by her doctor.

The story says that King Faisal Medics later accepted to take her to the C-section but it also took about two hours after the decision had been reached.

After a successive C-Section delivery, the baby had been overcome by fatigue and taken to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where it spent up to 3 weeks on hospital charges.

Six years later when the couple lodged the case against King Faisal Hospital, the boy could not speak, or sit and suffered repetitive seizures despite long-time medication.

King Faisal Hospital argued that the boy’s bad health conditions were not due to the treatment its medics gave to the mother at the time of labour.

Lawyer Audace Ngabo Muhirwa and Sadi Jashi for the family presented a couple of letters exchanged among, family, KFH and the health ministry pinning KFH responsibility in the boy’s bad health condition.

Gasabo Intermediate Court sought a report by experts to ascertain the cause of the boy’s current health situation.

The court dismissed a couple of reports from October 2021 for lack of clarity, ordering the Rwanda Medical and Dental Council to oversee another report.

The last report submitted in December 2022 concluded that “the boy has an undeveloped brain which was caused by lack of oxygen at the time of birth, resulting into permanent damage.

The report further explained that the evidence for the lack of oxygen at the time of birth is exhibited in the young boy’s uncontrolled epilepsy, grey and white matter on the brain and upper airway obstructions.

This is the highest amount the hospital has been ordered to pay in a medical negligence case.

In 2021, the hospital paid Rwf40 million (approx $40,000) in compensation to a woman whose breast was removed for alleged cancer that was not.

Am Afghan woman, let me tell you about schools’ closure

My name is Zainab, 20 years old, living with my parents at Qalai Meri

Qalai Amir Mohammad Khan school where Zainab used to go before the Taliban banned girls from schools/ Faith Reporters

My name is Zainab (I would mention my father's name, but it might not be safe for my family).

I am 20 years old, living with my parents at Qalai Meri Town, Qalai Meri District in Ghazni Province.

I am a former student at the nearby public school Qalai Amir Mohammad Khan.

I was in grade 11, one year away from accomplishing secondary school to start university for psychology.

This is my story to the world, how the Taliban stopped me from going to school when they banned all girls from attending school in August 2021 as soon as they captured power.

I’m seated at home with broken dreams but still holding onto my frustrated hopes.

Some of my former fellow young women students are now being given in for marriage, most of them being forced by their families, after all, there’s nothing they are doing at home—the Taliban set the destiny of women in the country.

Like many other young women in Afghanistan, I saw myself as a saviour for my family which is burdened by the deaths of men in the war and the poverty that came with increasing widows and orphans of the extended family.

Before banishment

My former school Qalai Amir Mohammad Khan is a 20-minute walk from my hometown Qalai Meri.

As usual in public schools, girls studied from morning to noon, and boys studied from noon to evening.

Everything in Afghanistan is built on being male or female and male teachers teach male students and vice vasa.

There were only a few ramshackle classrooms where we would all sit in separate grades studying while some, especially lower grades, could study outside.

We had only two toilets that were too dirty for girls to use (I don’t want to tell you how dirty it was but what you should know is that we girls never used those toilets).

There was no water at Qalai Amir Mohammad Khan.

This is my country, and this was my school—all my dreams were in those ramshackle classrooms, the poor teachers and the ravaged nation.

I was not happy with such a situation and hoped that my generation and I would revamp our bereaved families and a torn nation.

My parents always wanted me not to go to school but when I insisted, my father decided to always accompany me to school whenever he thought it was not safe outside.

A few brave girls endured the threats to life and the squalor at schools and I’m happy that I was one of the few who decided to seek an education in such a situation.

The day of banishment

I remember it evening when my father came and told me I was no longer allowed to go to school, that the Taliban had banned girls’ education beyond grade six.

I was doing my homework; my mother was in bed ill while my young sister was preparing dinner.

I just went to bed to sleep and did not have dinner.

My young sister came to comfort me and both of us didn’t have food that night.

After struggling to study through hardships and insecurity, the Taliban had shuttered my dreams just like that.

The following day, I went to school to confirm it myself.

I was not surprised that I found several other girls on the way going to school.

The gateman refused us from entering, repeating the bogus announcement of the unyielding Taliban that girls were no longer allowed to study.

I looked at the gate guarded by a poor gateman in clothes big on him, holding a stick; I saw my country was ironically becoming an adversary of my aspiration, ready to let me fall forever; I cried.

I’m crying even right now as I’m writing.

We were about 40 and stayed there for about an hour showing our weak dissatisfaction in tears until the gateman became so rude and aggressive.

Five girls Sabira, Aysha, Hosey, Fawzia and Asma cried most that we tried to help them calm down.

We returned home with headaches, dry lips and pale faces.

I have remained at home because I’m not even allowed to freely go anywhere.

I’m aware that many of my former fellow students have been married even being forced into marriage by their relatives.

Some have sneaked out of the country to pursue their education in Saud Arabia and in the West which I think is a shame for the Taliban.

My hope for education is still as firm as it was that I’ll attain education and help my family contrary to what the Taliban wants us to suffer.

Currently, only women in health services are allowed to work which is ironic for a group that does not want women to study.

I am happy for my fellow young people out there who are not like us in Afghanistan where for instance, I was born in war studied in war and the so-called end of the war has forced me out of school.

At closed school gates, the Taliban plunge Afghans back into dark ages

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Do you have a story to tell or an opinion, send us an email at FaithReporters@gmail.com

Tracking the footprints of ivory traffickers (about the story)

Between November 2021 and March 2022, my fellow journalist Olivier Muhizi and I worked on an investigative story of ivory trafficking between Tanzania and Rwanda.

About this story

By Kelly Rwamapera

I started journalism in 2014, writing about all sectors but mostly education and agriculture since I was based upcountry in Eastern Rwanda until 2017 when I started focusing on law reporting.

It is in this context that the Henry Nxumalo Foundation supported me and fellow journalist Olivier Muhizi who was a photographer for the Associated Press in Rwanda to investigate ivory trafficking between Tanzania and Rwanda.

The grant they announced in late 2021 aimed at supporting the investigation of cross-border wildlife crimes in East.

According to the Rwandan prosecution, there have been more than 150 wildlife crimes in Rwanda as on December 2022 since 2018.

I had some reliable information about Rwandans who had been convicted for ivory trafficking from Tanzania and it seemed that we only had to meet these people and have the story unfold there and then.

However, the actuality proved different and the story required us to look somewhere we did not know after all that we seemed to know had been exhausted.

I guess, if I didn't have the evidence of the stories I had covered before on ivory trafficking cases, my friend Muhizi would have suspected me of lying to him.

The reader should expect to meet judges, prosecutors, police officers, local authorities, and Rwandans of different walks of life including women picking beans in their homes.

I will talk about some minor mistakes I made that became big reasons for not getting the information we wanted and how what appears may not be what is in the criminal world of ivory trafficking.

In this story, I will also dive into aspects of life in Rwanda and even history or journalism in general whenever I find it relevant.

For example, if we’re to spend a night at a certain place because of the information we were looking for, the story can bring in the history of the place or the lifestyle related to trade or other aspects relevant to the whole story.

You will also find quotes from some songs and poems or other different writings whenever I find them relevant.

My name is Kelly Rwamapera a Freelance journalist in Rwanda, a central African country that is also a member of the East African Community block.

Between November 2021 and March 2022, my fellow journalist Olivier Muhizi and I worked on an investigative story of ivory trafficking between Tanzania and Rwanda.

We had received a grant from the Global Initiative Against TransnationalOrganized Crime, the Henry Nxumalo Foundation and Oxpeckers InvestigativeEnvironmental Journalism to investigate and tell a story of how ivory trafficking was being done from Tanzania into Rwanda.

We knew where to begin but we didn’t know that the ground would shift beneath us and find ourselves lost and without where to begin.

This is the story behind the story we submitted to the funders.

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At closed school gates, the Taliban plunge Afghans back into dark ages

Let me tell you: if the Taliban were a sober group, not an ignorance-driven regime, we would argue with them and find a common ground for our society to flourish

By Aisha

You have heard that the Taliban regime closed classrooms for girls and women, and you might be one of the people who are watching this drama unfolding.

But I want to tell you, this is about the lives of Afghanistan families.

You should be sobbing like many Afghan families are in hiding or joining hands with activists like us to have Afghans free just like many of you are free.

We, the Afghan women and girls and the whole Afghan society are under a barbaric regime that very few people on earth have an idea of what it looks like.

Let me tell you: if the Taliban were a sober group, not an ignorance-driven regime, we would argue with them and find a common ground for our society to flourish.

This is a lumpen regime on the crooked wheels of a handful of people who have intentionally closed their ears to any other value apart from seeking power and domination.

Even at the greatest length of the stretch of their imagination, the Taliban will treat with scepticism the universal and crystal-clear concepts such as justice and freedom.

The tormentors fear the righteousness of children and the nobility of women and they treat them with brutality.

Let me tell you how the Taliban started their total enslavement of women, from indoors through restrictions to public appearance and travelling abroad.

After returning to power, the power-thirsty Taliban completely removed women from the public domain swiftly starting with refusing them from wearing coloured clothes.

The ‘Imprisoners’ took away the right to work and education from women and girls, starting by limiting their hours of activity and suppressing their protests with violent methods.

The ‘Graveyards’ of women’s hopes are seeking to completely deprive girls and women of all their human rights, just like in the first period of their power.

This new ban on women’s education comes at a time when the Taliban had already infringed on women’s freedom of movement, restricting our entry into parks, pools and sport halls.

The ‘Death Sentencers’ have obliged hijab wearing for women journalists on TV screens, excluded women from employment and separated girls’ classrooms from boys’ before they banned girls from attending school.

The barbaric regime set time and ‘paddocks’ for women in parks, women medical practitioners were banned from talking in hospitals and women were banned from travelling without a male escort called Mahram.

Universities targeting female students is one of the notorious acts of this group against women and girls over the past year, burying the girl child dream in the corners of their former classrooms.

Now we are completely deprived of our human rights and it’s not only directed at us the Afghan girls and women of today but the whole society through the extinction of the new generation of educated Afghan women.

This is a deciding moment for the world today: to come with us to bring women back to school or sit and watch the ‘drama’ of the Taliban sealing women’s fate once and for all.

Today, the gates of light have been closed on the Afghan girls and women, and these future builders of the society were pushed into the darkness, to look so much like a symbol of condemnation and destruction.

Today, this segment of society, with all the challenges and problems that are increasing and increasing day by day, is left alone in the field of fighting for their rights.

For some of you who are not aware, we the Afghan women and girls have never taken education for granted: we have endured insecurity, and economic hardships and some women lost body parts but never gave up to seek education.

We ask the Taliban not to allow such torture on the children of this country and not paralyze the society and let their daughters and sisters study their lessons.

We expect the international community not to sit silently in this regard and to end this deadly silence, do the necessary to make the Taliban reconsider their decision, otherwise, the shuttered dreams of the Afghan girls and women will haunt whoever does not do what they can do.

We, the Afghan women and girls, stand bravely for our rights, justice and freedom until the last moment of our lives.

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The writer, Aisha, is an Afghan human rights activist. She sent this article to Faith Reporters through the:

Afghanistan Women’s and Children Strengthen Welfare Organisation (AWCSWO)

Address: Faisal Town, ´´ 7 ´´ District, Kabul, Afghanistan

Website: www.awcswo.org

Office Email: info@awcswo.org

Office Phone number: +93705141682

Am Afghan woman, let me tell you about schools’ closure

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Tracking the footprints of ivory traffickers (starting the end)

Between November 2021 and March 2022, my fellow journalist Olivier Muhizi and I worked on an investigative story of ivory trafficking between Tanzania and Rwanda.

My name is Kelly Rwamapera a Freelance journalist in Rwanda, a central African country that is also a member of the East African Community bloc.

Between November 2021 and March 2022, my fellow journalist Olivier Muhizi and I worked on an investigative story of ivory trafficking between Tanzania and Rwanda.

We knew where to begin but we didn’t know that the ground would shift beneath us and find ourselves lost and without where to begin.

This is the story behind the story we submitted to the funders.

Starting the end

I gazed at the hill ridges of Gahara ka Kirehe, my weary eyes resting on the maize plantations whitened by their blossoming flowers on top and darkened by the thick leaves below.

They were so beautiful in the evening breeze, waving goodbye to the day's sun that was drifting in the direction of Kigali.

Yet we came here to investigate the story of ivory trafficking.

For the past month, we had been following the footprints of ivory traffickers in eastern Rwanda but at this point, there was no more hope for chances beyond.

The evening sun of December shone on the maize on top of the hills while the maize in the valleys was in the shadows of the hills, the sun was hurryingly vanishing into twilight.

As the sun was disappearing, so the same way our chances to find ivory traffickers were disappearing into obscurity.

Our hope was too small to promise us beyond the mountain of disappointment that stood high before us.

We couldn’t believe that we had reached the end; that all the convicts and suspects in an ivory trafficking case we knew were nowhere to be seen.

The information we had was that we could find one Rukundo in this border community with Tanzania, who had been released on a presidential pardon.

A mere thought on the sad truth that it had all ended here at Rama, Gahara Sector, Kirehe District was more burdensome than all the hills and valleys we had gone through the whole Gisaka in our investigation.

We walked some yards on the route that had brought us to Rama ya Gahara as we waited for the motorcycles from Nyakarambi, about 20 miles away.

We didn't have a story to submit to our funders but in one month of scouring east Rwanda for former convicts of ivory trafficking, we had a story to tell about our experiences.

It was here at Rama, according to the information we relied on, that a group of about a dozen people who were trafficking ivory was arrested at Rukundo’s house with more than 100 kilograms of ivory.

But all had receded in obscurity.

That's how we left Gisaka back to Kigali.

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When should medics be liable for their practice? (Part one)

Of medical malpractice and negligence

This is a carefully researched and penned article on one of the hot subjects in the field of law and medicine—medical malpractice. It is in seven parts to enable the reader keep track of its flow

By Isaac Bizumuremyi

The term “medical malpractice” is an internationally preferred terminology used in actions for damages in connection with medical services.

Claims related to medical malpractice have attracted the attention of media reporters, and their reporting has simply been harmful to health establishments in terms of their reputational image.

The cause of the harm, I guess has not been intentional but rather was out of a limited understanding of the medical malpractice viewed within the lenses of the law.

This piece is thus prepared in response to the prevailing situation in many countries as a lawyer’s contribution to the general understanding of the subject and hopefully trigger a law reform in the area of medical professional liability.

Medical malpractice is nothing else but negligence

This article will largely draw its support from well-settled decisions of the highest courts in various jurisdictions.

For those who do not know or understand the role or the importance of decided cases in resolving their disputes before courts, I thought it needful to highlight such importance.

Decisions of the highest courts such as Supreme Courts, and Courts of Appeal in certain issues of the law will bind the lower courts on the subject matters with similar facts.

For example, if the Supreme Court has given its interpretation, meaning, and or application of given legal provisions and facts in a given situation, that interpretation, meaning or application of a law, or facts must be followed as it is by the lower courts.

Such decisions are commonly referred to as case law.

Common law jurisdictions (countries with a legal system that is largely influenced by the English legal system) will respect those Apex court decisions irrespective of the country where they were rendered.

This is the jurisprudential principle of Stare decisis.

The principle of “stare decisis” is based on a Latin phrase meaning to stand by decided cases, uphold precedents, and maintain the positions earlier laid down by higher courts.

Principally, Stare decisis is about adherence to decisions of superior courts and avoiding disturbing questions of law that have been put to rest.

The objective of non-disturbance of decided legal questions is to avoid confusion in the minds of the citizens as to what the law of the land is.

By adhering to the principle of Stare decisis, it will contribute to the development of a good law, which is definite, lucid, and unambiguous with the flexibility to relate to different situations, facts, and circumstances and that justice is done in accordance with the law.

In the context of this article on medical malpractice, case law is very important for legal practitioners as they present how Honourable Judges of Superior Courts have for centuries considered medical malpractice and we will largely make reference to court-decided cases to illustrate our points.

This is why we thought it was important to first highlight the importance of the already decided cases so that the reader can also attach such importance to what has been decided by courts in matters of medical malpractice.

The Author, Isaac Bizumuremyi, is Managing Partner at Lex Chambers; a Corporate lawyer, Commercial Litigator, Transactions Advisor, and Commercial Arbitrator in Kigali Rwanda

Lex Chambers

06 KN 33 Street

Kiyovu, Kigali City, Rwanda

Email: isaac@lexchambers.attorney

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Click here to read part two of seven