Rwanda’s health minister fired for lying about testing kits

Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame on Sunday revealed how the country’s health minister had been fired over mishandling of coronavirus testing kits.

In a stinging rebuke on his ministers, Kagame accused several of them including the ex-health minister Diane Gashumba of lying, carelessness and indiscipline.

Kagame, who was speaking at the National Leaders’ Retreat said Gashumba lied to him about the availability of kits to test individuals for the deadly Coronavirus, Covid-19.

“One morning, I called one of the leaders and the Prime Minister about the Coronavirus and asked that they examine each one of us ahead of the Leader’s Retreat. I told them to tell the minister of health to ensure this.”

“She responded that we have 3,500 kits, and that using 400 of them to test leaders would seriously deplete the number of kits we have. The person I sent told her that the message is an instruction, and that if she has objections she should call me.

“Later we discovered that we do not have the kits as she said. We have kits for only 95 people and not 3,500. I asked her about this and she started giving excuses in a long story. You leaders, you cannot even speak the truth; how do you expect to solve problems?” President Kagame said.

The prime minister’s office on Friday said it had relieved Gashumba of her duties following ‘a series of habitual gross errors and repeated leadership failures’. Gashumba had been health minister since 2016.