There is a month to a presidential election in Rwanda, and Paul Kagame who is an incumbent is making serious changes in his government. Among those changes, new appointment decisions have been made within such ministries as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of the Interior as well as within the military by appointing a new chief of the military intelligence. These changes were declared in the communiqué issued on the 12th of June, 2024.
The setting of the cabinet was done less than a month before the general elections to be held on 15th July with President Kagame going for his fourth term having been in power for 24 years. The changes claimed to affect the executive branch are indeed quite extensive and represent a significant reshuffle a mere ten days to the commencement of the presidential and legislative campaign.
Notable reshuffle includes is; Vincent Biruta, who has been serving as the Foreign minister since 2019 has been moved to head Ministry of Interior. He is replaced by Olivier Nduhungirehe, who previously served as Rwanda’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Netherlands.
The appointment is all the more striking as Nduhungirehe was recently mentioned in the “Rwanda Classified” investigation led by the Forbidden Stories consortium accusing him of launching likely state-sponsored attacks against Kigali’s critics on social media.
This reshuffle is the fourth time in a year that Rwandan government has undergone some overhaul and involves eight changes in cabinet. Newly created portfolios are in Finance, Public Service and Labor team, as well as, Environment.
Also, Aimable Havugiyaremye has been elected the head of national intelligence services, he was the Attorney Gernal before. Its appointment it;s rather important as the gentleman is a civilian with most ranking positions previously occupied by military personnel.