The government has opted for an unconventional approach to address gaps in cell leadership by deploying youth volunteers to the vacant positions.

The decision follows disruptions caused by Covid-19 which affected the normal recruitment process.

Normally, the cell leadership positions competed for through written and oral job interviews, but with the Covid challenges, these exams were suspended.

The shortage of cell leaders was caused by resignations of some leaders while others quit the jobs for different reasons, according to officials.

Ange Sebutege, the Mayor of Huye District, told The New Times that there were 27 vacancies in his district.

"We are in a critical situation where we have to increase efforts in coping with Covid-19 pandemic yet some cells have no leaders to coordinate these efforts. That is why we decided to provide renewable paid contracts to the youth volunteers as they are already in the system helping the government to address different issues including fighting Covid-19,” he said.

He said the young volunteers are going to use their skills in mobilizing the population on how to defeat the pandemic as well as addressing urgent human security issues.

According to Radjab Mbonyumuvunyi, the Mayor of Rwamagana District there are 42 vacancies in the district.

 "We were in need of 17 executive secretaries of cells and 24 leaders in charge of development and social affairs,” he said.

He explained that the youth will now work as government-paid employees.

He assured that the youth volunteers already have leadership experience since they have been working with local leaders to address different issues in the community.

"It will be easy for them to adapt in cell leadership since they continue to assume the same duty they were doing before,” he said.

Musanze District has also deployed about 40 youth volunteers to cell leadership. 

Many other districts have experienced the same gaps in cell leadership, some caused by resignations.

For instance, Rubavu District on Thursday, July 8, confirmed the resignation of executive secretaries of six cells in different sectors which need to be covered.

Officials from the ministry of local government told this paper that the ministry of labour has helped much in the approach to fill gaps in cells leadership adding it is the one with more details on the recruitment approach.

Six-month contract

The ministry of public service and labour explained: "The deployment of youth volunteers is based on need to address the spike in Covid-19 cases and the need to fill gaps in cells that no longer have even a single leader or uncompleted number of leaders because citizens need access to many services at the cell level.”

It added, "Different institutions came with the decision to select youth volunteers with needed criteria, competency and experience to be serving in the positions for a period of six months while districts await the normal recruitment process.”

The ministry did not mention the exact number of vacant positions to be filled in the cell leadership.

There are 2,148 cells countrywide.

There are over 40,000 members in the youth volunteering programme across the country.