Juliet Kabera, new REMA boss
The Rwanda senate has approved appointments of Rwanda’s National Demobilized and Reintegration Commission (RDRC) and the director General of Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) respectively.
The two officials approved on Tuesday were among recent appointments made by President Paul Kagame.
Approved officials are Valerie Nyirahabineza, the new chairperson of the RDRC.
Nyirahabineza replaced Seraphine Mukantabana who was dismissed in December last year.
Nyirahabineza was Member of Parliament of the East African Legislative Assembly where she was elected after pursuing Masters studies in Social Science and Gender Development at the University of Rwanda (UR).
While presenting her profile, the Senate social affairs committee said that her profile was good enough and in a webinar vetting interview, she showed commitment to serve in the commission unreservedly especially focusing on social welfare of former soldiers returning to Rwanda.
Nyirahabineza served as EALA MP from 2013- 2017, and before that she served government as a cabinet minister for Gender and Family promotion, worked as a court Judge and an advocate without borders.
The senate special session also approved the appointment of Juliet Kabera as new Director-General (DG) of REMA replacing former Eng. Collette Ruhamya, with whom they had served the same environment, docket hand in hand for years.
Valerie Nyirahabineza, RDRC boss
The Senate said that Kabera was approved on grounds of her 18 year experience in environment protection but Senators were very concerned about the criteria of vetting appointees without considering the financial management skills.
“This is a very important aspect that we keep neglecting yet these officials have to show that they can actually manage the public finances,” Senator John Bonds Bideri said asking the senate to consider this aspect.
The concerns of the senator come after the Office of the Auditor General showed that more public funds remain unaccounted for in billions and more counting each year on.
The Senate committee said that Kabera has experience in the field of environment and technical representative for the multilateral fund on Montreal protocol.
She is pursuing a Master’s in public health and MBA in conservation studies at Africa Leadership University (ALU).
However, the Senate was concerned with Kabera education papers especially the studies which were jotted as a graduate yet she is still pursuing her studies, and asked that this be corrected to ‘a student pursing studies’.
After consultations and corrections on the CVs of the two officials, Senate unanimously voted for the approval of both appointments.
