2016 was a year punctuated with field outreach for lawmakers but also a boost in parliamentary diplomacy and legislation.

While both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies work day-to-day at committee levels, the plenary sessions normally sit in three divided semesters that stretch throughout the year and, depending on the urgency of the matter, some extraordinary sessions can be called in between recesses.

The main roles of the bicameral House normally are about legislation, oversight and public representations.

Legislation

The year saw enactment of more than 70 legislations by the Lower House alone, the majority of them already gazetted, while the Upper House capped the year having adopted close to 10 laws.

Among the laws passed by the Chamber of Deputies include law on public savings scheme, VAT law amendments, sports promotion policy, budgetary law, Bill on free movement of labour, and approval of ratified grants and loans by the Government.

The National Public Savings Scheme will seek to marshal savings from different Rwandans within and outside the country with a target to mobilise at least Rwf90 billion in its first three years.

The amended law governing Value Added Tax (VAT) provides for lesser penalties for non-compliance.

Under the old law, failure to use electronic billing machines (EBM) effectively attracted administrative fines varying between Rwf500,000 and Rwf20 million.

But under Article 3 of the amended legislation, the fine should be 10 times the value of the evaded value added tax.

On the other hand, the Senate, whose docket was revised to allow more time for the implementation of fundamental principles as one of the new designed roles after constitutional amendments, passed nine laws.

Among the laws adopted include the law determining the powers, responsibilities, organisation and functions of the Rwanda National Police, the law governing the National Intelligence and Security Services.

Speaking about what transpired in their last session, Speaker Donatile Mukabalisa commended performance of legislators, which she said was slightly beyond expectations, adding that more focus will be put on pending work, specifically reports that are yet to be tabled in 2017.

"We can’t say that in general we have achieved what we expected 100 percent, because some of the committees are yet to submit their reports before the plenary but the performance so far is satisfactory,” the Speaker said.

Government oversight

On parliamentary oversight, Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi appeared before the joint sitting of the House to highlight the status of textile and garment manufacturing in April, while in August, he was back in the House to brief lawmakers on the implementation of government policy on water supply.

The two chambers received annual reports from, Human Rights Commission, National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, Public Service Commission, Office of the Ombudsman, Auditor-General’s report 2015, among others.

While different consultative meetings were held in the Upper House, at least five reports will be tabled during the first ordinary session in February this year.

One of the long awaited reports by the Senatorial Committee on Finance and Development relates to the implementation of national agriculture programmes, where senators had earlier raised concerns about lack of organised farming.

The Senate also conducted a survey on the implementation of fundamental principles in different government agencies and how to counter genocide ideology that has been reported to be on the rise especially in Europe and other western countries.

Parliamentary diplomacy

Both chambers paid and received courtesy calls from different delegations, from Swedish, Turkish, and UK, among other places.

The legislators also condemned the draft resolution by the European Union on the best practices in the promotion of rights to women and gender equity.

After a study tour in Rwanda to analyse women’s promotion and gender equity, members of the European Union parliament drafted a damning report alleging that Rwanda’s authorities are involved in acts of intimidation, arrest, detention or prosecution of opposition party leaders, members and activists, as well as journalists and other perceived critics of the Government.

In response, the Rwandan Parliament condemned the report and called for a withdrawal of the resolution, saying facts in it were biased and aimed at distorting the image of the country, which was tantamount to genocide divisionism, denial and negation.

Rwandan MPs urged their European counterparts to denounce genocide denial by focusing their efforts on bringing Rwandan genocide fugitives who are still roaming free in Europe to courts so they can face justice and enacting laws against denial of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in their countries.

The year 2016 will also be remembered as one that saw loss of the two legislators. Senator Jean de Dieu Mucyo and MP Desire Nyandwi who succumbed to different illnesses late last year.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw