President Paul Kagame is due to meet local leaders during a three-day retreat that begins today. According to the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Local Government, Ladislas Ngendahimana, the retreat will gather executive secretaries from all of the 416 sectors, members of district councils and Kigali City Council, including executive committee members. Also attending are corporate service division managers of districts, and provincial governors. Though the opening ceremony will be held at Remera indoor stadium, the retreat will be taking place at FAWE Girls School in Gisozi Sector of Gasabo District. “We have selected a critical theme around citizen-centered transformational governance in local government. Basically, the retreat will focus on what can be done and how we can perform better to ensure the transformation of the citizens,” Ngendahimana told The New Times. Sector executive secretaries will only attend the opening session while the retreat will be exclusively for officials at the level of districts, provinces and the City of Kigali. “We will discuss service delivery issues, working relationships, character and of course human security issues, accountability and project management in local governments which is in line with district development strategies,” he added. The leaders will also discuss how to design transformational strategies and the national strategy for transformation. Among the speakers are the Minister for Justice Johnston Busingye, Minister for Finance Claver Gatete, the chairperson of the Parliamentary Accounts Committee Juvénal Nkusi, the CEO of Rwanda Governance Board Prof. Anastase Shyaka, and the chairperson of Transparency International Rwanda Marie-Immaculée Ingabire, who will talk about the state of corruption in service delivery in local government. The retreat follows this year’s national leadership retreat last month in Gabiro which adopted a series of resolutions to be implemented by the local government. It’s the third local government retreat since 2016 and the first since President Kagame was reelected and it is meant to set the tone on what is expected be done during his new mandate, officials said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
