Seven senior officials in Rubavu District resigned on Tuesday over failure to fulfil their respective responsibilities, The New Times has learnt.

They included six directors of various units of the district and one officer in charge of disaster management.

The list includes Espérance Dukundimana, the Director of Administration and Human Resource, Daniel Rugomboka, the District Council Specialist and Médiatrice Mwangange, the Director of Education

On the list, there’s also Benoît Rukabu, the Director of Business Development and Employment, Donat Karasira, the Director of Finance as well as Gilbert Gahunde, the Director of Good Governance and Marie-Claire Kayitesi, an Officer in charge of Disaster Management.

Speaking to The New Times, Côme de Gaule Nyirurugo the District Advisory Chairperson confirmed the development.

"It is true, their resignations were handed in on Tuesday evening. Seven officials who include six directors and an officer tendered in their resignation letters citing that they had failed to fulfil some of their responsibilities,” he said. "Seven officials resigning at once is unusual. Their respective duties will in the meantime be done by junior employees pending fresh recruitments.”

‘Gross misconducts’

Most of those who resigned were previously pinned in various malpractices which include misuse of public funds meant to support vulnerable citizens.

For instance, the then director of administration and human resource alongside her counterpart in charge of disaster management was in mid-October arrested over misusing thousands of cement bags that were found rotting away in a warehouse.

The cement was a donation that the district acquired from the Ministry of Defence to assist vulnerable residents whose homes were destroyed by heavy rains that struck the district.

The then director of administration and human resource was also detained in 2017 over insubordination towards one of the candidates who were contesting for presidential elections.

During a meeting, on Monday, that brought together all officials of Rubavu District and the Prof. Anastase Shyaka, the Minister for Local Government corruption and divisionism were cited as the top bottlenecks to the development of the district.

He went on to say that while the Ndi Umunyarwanda programme was bearing fruits in other parts of the country, Rubavu was off-track.