Rwanda has proposed the world’s first country-wide DNA database, a project that will involve collecting samples from all of the country’s 12 million citizens in an effort to crack down on crime.

The scheme has prompted concerns from human rights campaigners who believe the database could be misused by the government and violate international human rights laws.
Plans for the database were announced by Rwanda’s Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Johnston Busingye.

Speaking in the country’s capital, Kigali, he said the project would help to fight crimes like rape and murder.
He said: “We think we have the technical basis now to launch into the development of a DNA database. That said, it is first of all a legal process.
“We will examine global best practice on the issue, propose appropriate law and implement accordingly.”

He added: “I want to assure you that the ultimate goal is to have all the necessary equipment and technical know-how to provide accurate information about who is responsible for crime”.
Officials still need to secure a budget for the project and push legislation through parliament to permit the creation of the database, according to the Rwandan daily The New Times.
Human rights organisations are wary of the new scheme as they believe that the government could potentially misuse DNA data, which can reveal a broad range of intimate medical and genetic details.

Alexandrine Pirlot de Corbion, global programme lead at the charity Privacy International, said: “There is an inherent risk that this kind of database could be misused in the future.”
“Around the world we have seen instances where large sets of data have been misused for repression – allowing authorities to identify and profile groups in society that a government might want to locate.”

The retention of this data is also problematic from a legal point of view and, depending on its implementation, could violate legislation set out in the International Bill of Human Rights, according to the UK-based law reform group Justice.

Rwanda is still suffering from tensions in the wake of the 1994 genocide when 800,000 Rwandans were killed in just a hundred days, after the country’s Hutu political elite directed the mass murder of the country’s Tutsi population.

It is estimated that 70 per cent of the country’s Tutsi population were killed in the genocide.
Though officials want Rwanda to be the first country to have a comprehensive DNA database that documents all of the country’s citizens – several other nations have already started to implement large-scale DNA databases.

Elsewhere there are concerns that the Chinese government is using DNA testing to oppress the country’s predominantly Muslim Uighur minority.
Researchers believe more than a million Uighurs are being systematically detained in what China calls “re-education” camps.

China’s Xinjiang government has denied that it used its medical programme to make a DNA database and also denies that Uighurs are being detained without due process.
In 2015 Kuwait passed the world’s first law that required all citizens and visitors to submit samples of their DNA, but it was revoked before it came into force.

It was introduced with the aim of identifying terrorists but, in 2017, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that the law violated Kuwait’s constitutional guarantee of personal liberty.

Human rights groups say that that China has built up a vast DNA database of Uighurs living in Xinjiang province, collecting samples without consent from nearly 36 million people as part of a free medical check-ups programme.
In 2014 Chinese researchers published a paper describing how to distinguish Uighurs from other ethnic groups

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Ugandan citizens have pointed out poverty and corruption as the most serious problems facing the country today, according to a brief report released in Kampala on Thursday by the civil society organisation Taweza.

Titled ‘More food, less money: Ugandans’ experiences and opinions on poverty and livelihoods’, the brief is based on data from Sauti za Wananchi, Africa’s first nationally representative high-frequency mobile phone survey. The data was collected from 1,905 respondents across Uganda in November 2018.

According to the findings, nationally, the proportion of citizens naming poverty as the most serious issue has doubled from 14 percent in 2017 to 29 percent in 2018. Similarly, corruption is the second named problem with 13 per cent in 2018 compared to nine per cent in 2017.

Lack of employment comes third named by twice as many people in 2018 (12 per cent)] as in 2017 (6 percent).

Addressing journalists of the research findings, Ms Marie Nanyanzi, a programme officer at Sauti za Wananchi at Twaweza said in general fewer citizens are concerned about public services, like health, education and water and at household level, half of Ugandans are concerned about the gap between the rich and poor.

“Almost three out of four citizens are unhappy with the country’s economic direction (72 per cent). Many are also unhappy about employment (67 percent) as well as the state of corruption [70 per cent],” she said.

“The data in this brief tell the story of economic hardship for an expanding majority of Ugandan citizens. Although they are slightly more satisfied with the country’s economic direction as compared to 2017, many households still do not have enough income to meet their daily expenses. Poverty in their most serious challenge and in some households it has cost lives. These voices are an important alarm bell for the government to heed, so as to minimize further suffering.”

The report recognises notable decline in food stress at the household level in 2018;citizens are less likely to report not eating for a whole day (37 per cent compared to 49 percent in 2017) and running out of food because of lack of money (69 per cent compared to 53 per cent in 2017).

However, more rural and poor Ugandans suffer from food stress than their wealthier and urban compatriots. Even so, one out of four wealthier Ugandans (25 percent)went without eating for a day in the past three months.

Mr Ramathan Ggobi, a policy analyst and political economist said poverty in Uganda has been on a rise overtime and on a national level it increased from 19.7 per cent in the financial year 2012/13 to 21.4 per cent in 2016/17.

He said if government is to overcome the biting poverty among its people, it should invest in agriculture heavily since 69 per cent of the population depends on it.

“Agriculture is a priority in words not action yet majority of Ugandans depend on it,” said Ggobi.

On the other hand, Mr Mondo Kyateka, Ag Commissioner Youth and Child Affairs at the Ministry of Gender expressed disappointment over the rising poverty levels in the country despite government’s unending intervention to save the situation.

“Am a bit annoyed by the findings, we have put in place a number of multi poverty elimination programmes like Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP), Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP)but the insolvency just continues to shoot up,” he said.

He added: “We must abandon the entitlement syndrome that it should be government to elevate people from poverty. As Ugandans we should have our priorities right, we should priorities education, farming, financial literacy among others with that we shall yield good results.”

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