Long-serving legislators pave way for new blood

Some well-known legislators in the Lower House are missing on the provisional lists of candidates for the forthcoming parliamentary elections, due in September this year. Three major political parties – Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Democratic Party (PSD) and Liberal Party (PL) have already released lists of their candidates, dominated by new faces. As the RPF and allied parties currently have 41 seats out of the 53 contested for by political parties in Parliament. And as the RPF unveiled the provisional list of its candidates two weeks ago, some notable names were remarkably absent. Those missing include 72-year-old Constance Mukayuhi Rwaka, who has been in the House since 1999 and has been the Chairperson of the parliamentary standing Committee on National Budget and Patrimony, and Alfred Rwasa Kayiranga, who has long been serving as the chairperson of the parliamentary standing Committee on Political Affairs and Gender. Several other familiar faces, among them, Emmanuel Mudidi, Zeno Mutimura, Théobald Mporanyi, Gabriel Semasaka, Amiel Ngabo, Espérance Mwiza, Alphonsine Mukarugema, and Marie Josée Kankera were also missing on the RPF list of candidates. Mporanyi, who has been in the House for ten years, said that it makes sense for long serving MPs to step down. “After serving for ten years, honestly people should retire. If I were to take another mandate I was going into routine. I think I can serve better somewhere else with this experience,” he said in an interview yesterday. The lawmaker said that he was ready to serve the country in other capacities since he is still young enough to work. He revealed that he felt grateful for having been given the opportunity to be an MP. “It’s been a wonderful experience and I am happy to have contributed in making many important laws that have helped us build a country governed by the rule of law,” he said. In PSD, four out of its seven MPs in the House will not return to the House, including Juvénal Nkusi – the longest serving post-Genocide MP, Adolphe Bazatoha, who chairs the parliamentary Standing Committee on Economy and Trade, Jacqueline Mukakanyamugenge, and Théodomir Niyonsenga. Nkusi served as the first post-Genocide speaker from 1994 through 1997 and then became chairperson of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the Lower House since it was created nearly eight years ago. He told The New Times last week that he is stepping down from his parliamentary seat in order to give a chance to new blood. “Given all these years I have been serving and how things have been changing, I think that it’s time to give a chance to new blood. Even if what we did is good, we need to trust that others can also add something,” he said. As for PL, it has removed three of its five serving MPs from the list of candidates, including Evariste Kalisa who has been an MP since 1999 when he joined the post-Genocide Transitional National Assembly. He served twice as the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on national unity, human rights and fight against genocide and from 2011 to 2013 he served as the Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. In the same party, the other two who are not coming back are Henriette Sebera Mukamurangwa, who has been in the House since 1995, and François Byabarumwanzi, who currently chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Unity, Human Rights and fight against Genocide. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Long-serving legislators pave way for new blood