Justice, foreign affairs ministries get new permanent secretaries

An extra-ordinary Cabinet meeting that was held on Friday appointed new high ranking officials.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

An extra-ordinary Cabinet meeting that was held on Friday appointed new high ranking officials.

At Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the head of Tourism and Conservation department, Rica Rwigamba, was replaced by Amb. Yamina Karitanyi who was Rwanda’s High Commissioner to Kenya.

The agency’s head of Investment Promotion and Implementation, Vivian Kayitesi, moves to Turkey as Commercial Attaché at Rwanda’s High Commission in Ankara.

Amb Jeanine Kambanda, former High Commissioner to Singapore, replaces Mary Baine as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign. 

Amb Eugene Kayihura moves from South Korea to Tanzania as High Commissioner.

The Cabinet meeting, chaired by President Paul Kagame, also promoted and transferred some officials at MINIJUST.

It replaced the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Pascal Bizimana Ruganintwali, with Isabelle Kalihangabo who was the Assistant Attorney General for Legal Advisory Service.

Ruganintwali was subsequently appointed Deputy Commissioner General in charge of corporate services at the RRA, a new post under the agency’s new organisational structure.

Kalihangabo’s job was given to Celestin Bumbakare who was the commissioner for Domestic Taxes at the RRA.

Perhaps one of the most notable appointments is the one of Evode Uwizeyimana, a former judge who returned to the country in January this year after a seven-year self-imposed exile in Canada.

The cabinet appointed Uwizeyimana to the post of Vice-chairperson of the Rwanda Law Reform Commission, replacing Aimable Havugiyaremye who was subsequently appointed Vice-Rector in charge of Academic Affairs at the Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD).

Uwizeyimana returned home after securing a consultancy job with the Ministry of Justice to conduct a Universal Periodic Review of the domestic implementation of International Human Rights Instruments that Rwanda is signatory to, and t also draft Rwanda National Action Plan on Human Rights.

The extra-ordinary Cabinet meeting also made several other appointments on senior positions at Rwandan diplomatic missions, national agencies, and other institutions.