President Paul Kagame on Friday, January 6, appointed Dr François Xavier Kalinda as a senator in the Rwandan Senate. The appointment of Kalinda, a former member of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), comes less than one month after Augustin Iyamuremye resigned as a senator and president of the senate due to illness. ALSO READ: What next after Senate president Iyamuremye'sresignation? Kalinda, 60, is member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He joined EALA in 2015, replacing Celestin Kabahizi, who had resigned. Kalinda served two terms in the regional Assembly until 2022. “I take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to His Excellency the President of the Republic Paul Kagame for the trust he has once again bestowed upon me in appointing me as a senator,” Kalinda twitted on Friday. “I promise that I will not disappoint him in the new duties he has given to me as I continue to serve Rwandans.” https://twitter.com/fkalinda1/status/1611366511540858880?s=48&t=1eg2t1GyklRQpjhtYsUamg A former Dean of the School of Law at the University of Rwanda, Kalinda served as a member of the EALA Commission, the leading committee which manages the affairs of the regional Assembly, organises the business and programme of the House, and nominates members of other committees. He holds a Doctorate of Philosophy degree in Business Law. He also worked as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Rwanda’s College of Arts and Social Sciences, where he was member of the academic senate. After graduating from the then National University of Rwanda,in 1996, he pursued a Master of Law in Intellectual Property Rights at the University of Ottawa, in Canada, completing in 1999. In 2010, Kalinda obtained a PhD from the University of Strasbourg in France.
