Rwanda

Rwanda celebrated another victory for gender representation on Nov. 5 when President Paul Kagame reshuffled his cabinet — and in the process, increased the number of female ministers from from 26 to 27.
As a result, the country now has more female ministers than male. Women now make up 52% of the cabinet.

Rwanda’s Genocide Museum is a haunting place, one of the memorials in the capital city of Kigali that commemorate a hundred days of terrifying tribal conflict in 1994.

Rwanda has broken its current world record of 64 per cent female representation in Parliament, setting a new one of 67.5 per cent.

Out of 80 seats, women now occupy 54 seats, a new world record for female representation in Parliament globally.

The new record came out on Tuesday night after the National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced the September Parliamentary elections results, which saw President Kagame’s Party, RPF sweeping 74 per cent of the total votes and taking 40 seats, according to a NEC release.

One of the hallmarks of post-Genocide Rwanda is inclusive politics. The year 2018 brought about more gains as far as political plurality is concerned, at least in the Chamber of Deputies where two new opposition parties won seats.

And this is significant in the country’s politics, according to the leader of the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, Frank Habineza, whose party won legislative seats in last year’s elections following several failed attempts at the ballot.

President Paul Kagame yesterday reshuffled his cabinet, making broad changes in a trimmed cabinet, in which women comprise 50 per cent.

The members of cabinet have also reduced from 31 down to 26.

The changes were announced yesterday by the Prime Minister.

Dr Richard Sezibera replaces Louise Mushikiwabo as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Relations.

Women will take 61 per cent of seats in the next Lower House of Parliament (Chamber of Deputies) going by the latest results from this week’s parliamentary elections.

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) released provisional results from this week’s election, which saw the governing RPF-Inkotanyi take most seats out of the 53 that are openly contested for.