Fatu Harelimana (Consultative Forum for Political Organisations (CFPO))
Fourty-year old Fatu Harelimana holds a Bachelors degree in Management. Prior to her appointment as a CFPO choice for the Senate, she was the vice president of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), a position she had held since 2006.

Ms Harelimana, a mother of four, was also part of the African Union (AU) election observer teams for presidential elections in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Chad, Zanzibar and Senegal.

She has been an employee in Parliament where she held various positions. She is a member of the Ideal Democratic Party (PDI).

Perina Mukankusi (CFPO)
She is the Secretary General of the Democratic Union of Rwandan People (UDPR) party and holds an MBA in finance.

Prior to her appointment, she was an economic researcher in the Prime Minister’s office, a position she has held for the last two years.

A mother of three, Mukankusi, 46, served as director of planning in the Ministry of Justice, before joining the Prime Minister’s Office.

Prof. Emmanuel Bajyana (High institutions of Learning – Public) Born in 1947, Bajyana is an engineer by profession. He has been teaching Bio-Technology and Genetic engineering at the National University of Rwanda (NUR) since 2002.

He also served as a member of the Rwanda National Ethics Committee in the Ministry of Health.

Prof. Laurent Nkusi (High institutions of Learning – Private) Nkusi, 61, is a former cabinet minister (Lands and, later, Information) Until his election to the Senate recently, he was the vice rector in charge of academics at the Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Education of Kibungo (INATEK).

He attended his primary school education in Huye District, secondary school in Nyanza after which he enrolled at the National University of Rwanda (NUR), where he studied literature.

Thereafter, he went to France for higher education before returning to teach at NUR from 1976 to 2000. Between 2000 and 2008, Nkusi served as a cabinet minister.He ran unopposed on the ticket of private universities.

Jean Damascene Bizimana (Southern Province)

Dr. Jean Damascene Bizimana, 49, holds a PhD in Law, Masters and BA degrees in Philosophy and Human sciences, and Religious Sciences and Theology.

Bizimana is a lecturer on Genocide at the National University of Rwanda, and an independent consultant and researcher with wide experience and training from various countries.

He has worked with RCN Justice and Democracy (an NGO in Rwanda), was a member of the national commission that investigated the role of France in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, as well as the commission that investigated the shooting down of the plane that was carrying former president Juvenal Habyarimana.

Jeanne D’arc Gakuba (Kigali City)

Born in Kamonyi District, Gakuba, a mother of four, holds a Degree in Geography from a Burundian university.
She served as the vice Mayor of the City of Kigali for two terms.

Before that, she was the Director General, Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe (a women body) for three years. She also once headed the meteorological department in the Ministry of Infrastructure.

Gakuba won the senatorial seat in the City of Kigali, with an emphatic 80.78 percent.