As President Kagame and his proxies crisscross the country soliciting for the Constitutional Amendment so that he can continue his reign, the RPF has approved a Bill establishing and governing the organization of Maternity Leave Benefits scheme, which according to the RPF spin doctors is an insurance plan under which working women going on a 12-week maternity leave will be paid their full salary in the last six weeks of their leave.

Why should the government not take the responsibility of paying its employees?  Who has been paying these mothers their maternity leave? Who will pay for the mothers who are not working? In fact who are more vulnerable than those who already have a job?  This idea is fundamentally flawed like the so called Agaciro Fund, which is another RPF project of getting the much need funds to complete many stalled projects owned by Kagame under the guise of RPF.

Where are the Agaciro Funds? Has ever been asked by any employee whose money was deducted by RPF officials without consent? We all paid Agaciro Fund but who owns these funds? For example the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) is almost dry with its former Boss Kantengwa in jail for misappropriation of the funds, yet all the decisions were taken from the top and collectively. Why Kantengwa alone is sacrificial lamb on the RPF Altar?

Whereas the Project of giving enough time to mothers to heal and look after their toddlers, the project is more political than social. The government should solicit money from other sources and meet its obligation rather than spearing the employees who already overstretched by the social welfare. The cost of living especially in the Kigali and other urban places is becoming high and hard. The RPF charges extra money for its Secretariat, some internal schemes which the employees cannot skip. At the end of the day, the employee goes with PNUTS home. However, all these ladies in Rwanda cannot dare to say that this scheme is good but would have been funded by the government.

Under the Bill, “the Social Security Administration shall pay to a woman on a monthly basis, maternity leave benefits equal to her net salary based on average remunerations declared for the last three months.”

“Buri mukozi wese agiye kujya atanga 0.3% y’umushahara we mu rwego rwo gufatanya n’umukoresha mu guteganyiriza ikiruhuko cy’ababyeyi babyara”

We have Civil Societies which are controlled by RPF, for example  The Executive Secretary of a women associations’ umbrella group, Pro-Femmes Twese Hamwe, Emma Bugingo, said that most mothers would go back to work in the second half of their 12-week maternity leave because they couldn’t afford to lose 80 per cent of their monthly pay.

“The Fund will help mothers to take a longer rest and take care of their newly born babies. Everyone is waiting for the Fund to start working,” she said.   Miss Emma Bugingo should rather ask the government why it’s not taking its responsibility to pay for its employees, why should all the employees pay the scheme which will not befit all of them. The RPF government is tired and run out of ideas; Kagame should go after 2017 because the government that will replace RPF and Kagame would inject more money for this cause from the public purse.

This new Bill for Women should come as a surprise to no one but the weakly naïve and politically untutored that the role of the Kagame regime is to promote and defend the interests of women.

President Kagame is trying to show the World that he is the only president on the continent who has empowered women with the highest representation in the Parliament, now he will be the only one again to give mothers a full maternity pay. What may not be so apparent, but which is true nevertheless, is that Kagame represents his interests and families, Big Nations in the West and their wealthy investors whose power  have brought him to the throne, and in whose interests the logic of  dictatorship and  puppet compels him to act.

President Kagame initially has been considered as a strong critic of the life Presidency syndrome that is getting common in Africa. He once stated publicly that he will not amend the constitution that offers a maximum of two- seven –year terms for a sitting president. This is a cunning president who uses women as a tool for political gains to become the next King of Rwanda, Kagame Paul I.

Jacqueline Umurungi

 

Placide KayitareAFRICADEMOCRACY & FREEDOMSHUMAN RIGHTSJUSTICE AND RECONCILIATIONLATEST NEWSAs President Kagame and his proxies crisscross the country soliciting for the Constitutional Amendment so that he can continue his reign, the RPF has approved a Bill establishing and governing the organization of Maternity Leave Benefits scheme, which according to the RPF spin doctors is an insurance plan under which...PUBLISHING YOUR NEWS WITH CUTTING EDGE STYLE