KIMIHURURA - Senate President, Dr. Vincent Biruta, has disclosed that over the last eight years, the upper chamber concentrated on drafting, ratifying and passing bills that are economic related.

He made the remarks during a town hall meeting yesterday to highlight the Senate’s achievements in the past year.

The Senators are close to the end of their eight-year, non-renewable term with polls to elect new representatives slated for this month.

"In the past eight years, the Senate passed 378 bills; 41 percent were related to national economy, 25 percent were related to social affairs, 21 percent governance and 13 percent were judicial,” Biruta said.

As part of the senatorial mandate to vet top government officials, Biruta added, the upper chamber reviewed the credentials of 259 government appointed officials in the last eight years.

"Out of these, 136 were joining political positions, 98 were to head government agencies and 25 percent were joining the justice sector,” Biruta said.

The Senate president added that the senate will soon publish a booklet that contains details of the achievements.

Part of the senate’s work is to review annual reports from government institutions and according to Dr. Biruta, they received 42 reports, reviewed them and developed recommendations that were shared with the Executive as the law stipulates.

The institutional annual reports that the senate reviewed include those of the Auditor General, the Ombudsman’s reports and the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission report.

Other institutions that send their annual reports to parliament for review are the National Commission for the fight against Genocide and the Public Service Commission.

Regarding nurturing the Parliamentary diplomacy, Biruta said that 14 Speakers of Parliament visited the Rwandan Senate on different working trips to Rwanda.

"Generally, the first senate executed its duties despite having faced difficulties of establishment in its first years,” said Biruta.

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