A summit of the African Union (AU) Heads of States on Saturday, appointed Domitille Mukantaganzwa, the Executive Secretary of Gacaca courts, as one of the seven eminent persons in charge of monitoring governance in Africa, the government has announced.

The official will be part of a group of seven members on the panel of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), revealed Francis Gatare, President Paul Kagame’s Personal Representative to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

APRM is an African self-monitoring mechanism under the AU that monitors political, economic and corporate governance values, codes and standards among willing African countries.
"It is a big privilege for anyone to be elected in the panel…it is recognition of eminence of a person in good governance,” Gatare said in a telephone interview with The New Times as he revealed and described the appointment.

Gatare is also the Principle Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB).

He said that the AU summit that was held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, also reviewed reports of the APRM in countries that were monitored between 2005 and 2006 including Rwanda.

"The Gacaca process that helped to expedite trials of genocide suspects in Rwanda and boosted reconciliation was cited by many African countries as an ‘innovation,’ that can be emulated in other countries to handle post-conflict judicial challenges”, Gatare observed.

"It is a recognition of her achievement in that regard,” he said, describing Mukantaganzwa’s appointment as a recognition of the Gacaca success.

She was proposed by the Rwandan government as a candidate to the APRM panel before she was approved by African Heads of States in a closed session in which Prime Minister Bernard Makuza represented President Paul Kagame, Gatare revealed.

Efforts to get her comments on the new appointment were unsuccessful by press time as she did not respond to our calls.

The APRM is mutually agreed instrument that member States of the AU voluntarily accede to and allow their governance practices to be examined according to NEPAD standards.

Rwanda is among the first four countries that were monitored through the arrangement alongside Kenya, Ghana and Mauritius.

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