President Paul Kagame on Wednesday, September 22, officiated at the swearing-in of the newly appointed Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Emmanuel Ugirashebuja. The ceremony was held at Village Urugwiro on Wednesday, September 22. Delivering his remarks, the head of state commended Ugirashebuja for accepting to assume the duties. “I would like to express my gratitude to Ugirashebuja who has accepted to take on these heavy responsibilities and become a member of the government,” he said, adding that the fact that this is a field where he has worked for years should ease his work. Kagame also promised his collaboration towards delivering the fair justice that the Rwandan population envisions. “We will all work together to ensure we deliver justice that our people deserve and I am sure that the new minister and his colleagues have the capacity to do so,” he added. Who is Ugirashebuja? The newly appointed Minister has built a wide range of experience from being an international judge, scholar, legal practitioner and consultant in legal expertise. He established himself as an expert and arbitrator in both national and international arbitration platforms after securing membership of the Governing Board of the International Association of Law Schools. Prior to his appointment, Ugirashebuja had just completed his term as the fourth president of the East African Court of Justice from 2014 to 2020. Before taking up the presidency of the EACJ, Ugirashebuja had been a judge at the Appellate Division of the EACJ. He has also been the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Rwanda from 2004 till he headed to the Arusha-based court. Before his stint at university, Ugirashebuja had been a legal advisor for the Rwandan Constitution Commission from 2001 to 2003, which birthed the post-Genocide constitution. The 44-year old holds a bachelors and Master’s degrees from the former National University of Rwanda and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. He was appointed the justice minister and Attorney General on Friday, September 17 replacing Johnston Busingye, who was appointed Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK in late August.
