Cabinet reshuffle: MPs’ reactions

THE Lower Chamber of Parliament is confident that Friday’s reshuffle will bring us closer to vision 2020. The deputy Speaker of Parliament, Denis Polisi, said that the reshuffle came at a time when the parliament was still carrying out thorough investigations in some ministries. The President has a constitutional prerogative to reshuffle the cabinet; it [the reshuffle] did not interfere with our work and it came at the right time and was done properly, Polisi said. The reshuffle is backing much of our work and we really welcome it, he said. With the new blood in the cabinet, I believe the country’s vision 2020 would be achieved, lawmaker Abbass Mukama said. He said that the reshuffle would help bring a positive change in government programmes. Mukama explained that the change was timely and they have been waiting to see it happen because there was need to speed up government development programmes. Mukama said that the change especially in the Ministry of education was needed because of the damning revelations of genocide ideology in schools the ministry had failed to curtail. MP Donatilla Mukabalisa was of the view that The new blood in the education ministry has come at a time when the big challenges of education are clearly known, I hope they will solve them all, Mukabalisa said optimistically. The Head of State introduced three new full ministries, scrapped five state ministries and brought into cabinet five new faces, four of them women. Several ministers have also been transferred to other portfolios, while the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports has been split into two. The changes saw the number of full cabinet portfolios increase to 22 (including the premier’s position), up from 19; while the number of state ministers has been slashed from eleven down to six. Ends