KIGALI - A cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame Wednesday appointed Dr. David Himbara as the Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to the President, a post that has been vacant for some time.

Before the new appointment, Himbara headed the Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU) in the Office of the President. His new post has been unoccupied for about two years after the previous head, Maj. Gen. Frank Mugambage, was appointed the Director of Cabinet.

He was replaced at the SPU by Dr Jean Paul Kimonyo, a researcher who was a member of a commission that was charged with adducing evidence on the role played by France in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Other appointments in the President’s Office included that of Inès Mpambara as the Deputy Director of Cabinet. She has been the Senior Social Policy Analyst in the SPU, a post on which she was replaced by Michelle Ntukanyagwe former Deputy PPS.

Irene Zirimwabagabo, who has been working with UNIFEM, Central African Regional Office is the new Deputy PPS.
Meanwhile, according to resolutions of the meeting that was held at Urugwiro Village, Robert Ssali was appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of East African Affairs.

Ssali replaces Charles Gasana who was sacked by Premier Bernard Makuza earlier this week.

The cabinet also appointed Marie Claire Mukasine as the new Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure replacing the incarcerated Vincent Gatwabuyenge who is alleged to have embezzled Rwf 1.7b for construction of the Kigali-Bugesera road.

Mukasine once headed the country’s biggest insurance company SONARWA.

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