As the term of current Members of Parliament ended on June 14 when President Paul Kagame dissolved the Chamber of Deputies to pave the way for the election of new lawmakers in the July polls, not all of the 80 members who started the five-year term completed it.
Information The New Times got from Parliament shows that 12 lawmakers left their seats. They include five who got appointed elsewhere, five who resigned, and two who passed away.
According to article 79 of the Constitution, for election purposes, the President is required to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies at least 30 days and not more than 60 days before the end of the parliamentary term. The elections of Rwanda’s new Head of State, and lawmakers are due in July.
Members of Parliament’s five-year term which commenced in 2023 and was due to conclude in 2023, was extended to 2024 through the revision of the constitution to allow for alignment of parliamentary and presidential elections to take place on the same dates.
Information from Parliament indicates that 12 Members of Parliament (Deputies) vacated their seats, four of which got replaced because their term had at least one year to come to an end, while eight were not replaced because their term was less than that period.
The Organic Law governing elections in Rwanda, stipulates that when a Member of Parliament leaves his or her office, she or he is [only] replaced if the remaining term exceeds one year.
Even though some of lawmakers enjoyed benefits from the extension of parliamentary tenure, the additional period was less than one year - given that the constitution was promulgated on August 4, 2023, and the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies happened on June 14, 2024.
The five lawmakers who got other jobs
Of the 12 MPs who vacated their seats, five got positions in the government.
They are Ignatienne Nyirarukundo, who was appointed Minister of State in charge of Social Affairs at the Ministry of Local Government in 2019; and Jean Chrysostome Ngabitsinze who was moved to the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources as the Minister of State in 2020.
Nyirarukundo was later appointed senior advisor in charge of social protection programmes in the Office of the Prime Minister, while Ngabitsinze is currently the Minister of Trade and Industry.
Others are Omar Munyaneza who became the CEO of Water and Sanitation Corporation Group (WASAC Group) in September 2023; Emmanuel Bugingo as the High Commissioner of Rwanda to Zambia in January 2024; and Marie Alice Kayumba Uwera as the Executive Director of National Unity and Community Resilience at the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE), also in January 2024.
The five MPs who resigned
Janvier Kanyamashuri was the first lawmaker to resign, on March 19, 2019, about six months after joining the lower chamber of Parliament. He cited personal reasons while stepping down.
Gamariel Mbonimana is also on record among legislators who stepped down parliamentary positions. On November 14, 2022, Mbonimana threw in the towel after his drink-driving record was exposed. But he cited personal reasons while tendering in his resignation to Parliament.
The next was Jean-Pierre Celestin Habiyaremye, who quit on November 21, 2022, over what he described as personal reasons, but pointed to his misconduct during the Covid-18 pandemic when he violated the curfew hours. Such an incident, he said, occurred in March 2021.
MP Ernest Kamanzi, who was one of the two representatives for youth in the Lower House, resigned from the legislative position on December 28, 2022, citing personal reasons. But reports suggested that he was caught drink-driving.
Eugene Barikana was detained on May 11, 2024, over illegal possession of firearms, according to the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), which announced it found him in possession of one grenade and a magazine of an AK47 submachine gun.
Nyarugenge Primary Court on Wednesday, May 29, fined former lawmaker Eugene Barikana Rwf500,000 for illegal possession of firearms. Barikana was detained on May 11 over illegal possession of firearms.
On May 29, Nyarugenge Primary Court (in Kigali) found Barikana guilty of illegal possession of firearms and imposed a fine of Rwf500,000 on him, which it stated was a light penalty, observing that he had pleaded guilty and it was his first offense – which constituted mitigating circumstances.
The two MPs who died
The fallen lawmakers are Logan Ndahiro who succumbed to illness aged 68 and Fidel Rwigamba, who also died of illness aged 73.