By MOSES K. GAHIGI

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Rwandan President Paul Kagame is tasking his new cabinet to work as a team, seeing his new five-year term in office as a stamp of approval from the public, but also an obligation to better his record.

After they took office this week, most of them having been reappointed, President Paul Kagame told the ministers they must not work in isolation, a habit he said he had noted earlier.

The 21 cabinet ministers and 9 state ministers will serve the new five-year term (unless they are removed or reshuffled) with Kagame. The president took oath of office on Monday last week for another term in office, after a landslide victory in the July election.

“The country’s development cannot be achieved by the works of one individual, however excellent or sacrificial the person is.

“People and organs have to work together, that’s how a country develops there’s no other way around it, but the habit of working in isolation keeps coming back.”

Unity is probably something he will demand most from his government, just as much as integrity and commitment. This is because Rwanda, like most countries in the region, is facing uncertainties around its economy, having already been pummelled by geopolitical issues, as well as Covid-19 pandemic, in the recent past.

On Tuesday, he told the ministers that they must be selfless and think Rwanda first. Rwanda has already been an inspiration, rising from the horrible genocide in 1994 to today’s stability. Some of that success is attributed to Kagame’s pragmatism and micromanagement.

“There are times I am looking for someone and I call, only to be told the person is in a meeting, on calling another one I am told the same thing.

“When I wait and try again in the evening and I am still told the person is in a meeting, when do you work, when do you implement the things you meet about?

“Only go for a meeting if it is absolutely necessary, even then first identify the key points to meet about and come up with clear expected outcomes. It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes, maximum an hour,” said Kagame.

“You find someone cordoning off other people from using the elevator, because ‘the boss’ is going to use it. Why do you still do these things? The elevator is for all people to use”

“Others have been branded VVIPs, and some leaders have their briefcases and bags carried for them. What is all that for? Where are these tendencies coming from?” questioned Kagame.

President Kagame already acknowledged ministries have recently delivered, including returning the country to growth from the bad days of Covid-19, and hitting an 8 percent GDP growth rate. H says the new team should improve on it.

“I am not asking you to do the impossible. The things I challenge you to do are things that are possible to achieve.”

His new team will also have to rebuild relations with neighbouring countries that Rwanda trades with, but with which there have been tensions.