Are mayoral resignations a sign of more enlightened citizenry?

Just two years into their five-year term, nearly a third of the mayors have since resigned. Within the past one week alone, Gicumbi and Bugesera mayors and vice mayors threw in the towel. They followed in the footsteps of their counterparts in Rusizi and Nyabihu. Earlier, Ruhango, Kamonyi, Nyamagabe and Rubavu had also seen their mayors resign. In some cases, like Gicumbi and Bugesera, both the mayor and their two deputies stepped down at once, while in a few other cases, like Nyabihu, the mayor resigned along with one of the vice mayors. Besides mayors, there are two vice mayors for each district as well as City of Kigali. Over a month ago, the mayor of the City of Kigali also stepped down. While almost all of them have cited “personal reasons” as the reason for their stepping down experts say this wave of resignations is rather a sign that citizens are demanding accountability from their leaders with those who fall short heading for the exit door. In the event of resignation, mayors and their deputies tender in their resignation letters to their respective Advisory Councils. In Gicumbi, the District Advisory Council, the highest decision-making organ at the district level, fired the mayor and his deputies, over what they said was delayed implementation of development projects. “An audit was conducted on different projects in the district and the subsequent report shows slow progress in the implementation of development projects which prompted us to ask the mayor and his deputies for explanation,” Dieudonné Kayombya, the Council chair, told The New Times on Monday. “Unfortunately, they failed to explain so we decided to dismiss them.” Some of the projects in question include the delay of construction activities of Nyamiyaga Health Centre and Rubaya Road, which was also poorly constructed. The delays were blamed on the district leadership. In addition, officials Kayombya, the construction of Gicumbi’s Rubaya market was completed but it has yet to have meaningful impact on the community and some traders have since abandoned it. The Secretary General of Rwanda Local Government Association (RALGA), Ladislas Ngendahimana, told The New Times on Monday that Rwandans should look at the resignations in a positive light since it is a sign of freedom, democracy, delivery service and accountability. “We should be celebrating instead of complaining, actually. Before becoming leaders, we are citizens of Rwanda. In that context, the leaders who step down are exercising their right to serve or resign while at the same time citizens can in turn get leaders who are willing to serve them and deliver,” he said. He admitted that the development points to an underlying challenge that RALGA needs to fix “because it speaks to the need to build capacities in local governments so that local leaders can successfully deliver on their obligations.” However, resignations also present an opportunity because it gives a chance to other citizens to lead, he says. MP Théoneste Karenzi, a member of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the Lower House, said the growing trend of mayors’ resignations is a sign that Rwandans are continuously demanding more results from their leaders. “There are duties for which leaders are elected to fulfill and there is nothing wrong with resigning when you can’t fulfill them,” Karenzi told The New Times. “People get surprised because they weren’t used to such resignations but people should remember that accountability is a critical component of governance.” On his part, the Chairperson of the Rwanda Civil Society Platform, Jean Léonard Sekanyange, said leaders who resign should not be allowed to cite “personal reasons” but rather offer clear explanations for their decision. He said that it doesn’t help when leaders don’t divulge reasons behind their resignations because this leaves the electorate and the general public in the dark, while their successors are also unaware of which critical issues to address. “When someone is in service they have to serve citizens and sometimes a civil servant may find that the job doesn’t meet their expectations and that may lead to resignation, but those who resign should tell the public what happened so that people don’t remain in the dark,” Sekanyange said yesterday. He said that it creates some sense of fear and suspicion when leaders resign without explanation, adding that it can even discourage people who had ambitions to run for elective office. “There is need to be open because it clears things up,” he said. MP Karenzi agrees with Sekanyange. “They should be forthcoming and tell us why they are resigning because “personal reasons” is no reason,” he said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Are mayoral resignations a sign of more enlightened citizenry?