The promoted, demoted and dumped: an analysis

The obvious big news of the cabinet reshuffle last week was the dropping of James Musoni from the all important finance and economic planning portfolio and his replacement by his immediate subordinate, Permanent Secretary and also Secretary to the Treasury John Rwangombwa.

New man at Minaloc: James Musoni; Musoni nemesis, John Rwangombwa now boss at Minecofin

The fact the two men cannot stand each other has created much negative energy at Minecofin so much so that for Musoni to get even the smallest thing done he has devised a system to work around his permanent secretary. Rwangombwa and Musoni are practitioners per excellence of the kind of politics Kenyans call siasa za kukimba na kukimbana (loosely translated: politics to damage and damage each other).

Rwangombwa has been very good at hamstringing Musoni. He sits around indifferently in his office all day and the only time he ever moves in any pro-active manner; the only time he ever throws his weight around to contribute to the completion of a single objective, big or small is when he knows if he doesn’t Kagame will learn of it.

Rwangombwa has a reputation for being bright, for being a technician who knows better than anyone else the intricacies of running Minecofin. In that respect the President has not made a mistake in choosing him to take it over.

But if Kagame wants to be the great African leader he aspires to be, it would be instructive for him to watch Rwangombwa’s character as it exemplifies the character of a good number of Rwandan officials.

In Africa we have the tendency in our workplaces to let all kinds of emotions get in the way of work.

Americans, Europeans, Japanese, Chinese, everyone else in the world too has emotions. But only in Africa do we let hatred of someone, anger, petty jealousy and so on to affect the way we do our work.

A Japanese official will not delay to sign off on a document that will lead to the construction of a road because he hates the minister. In Africa that is what most bureaucrats and officials do (if, that is, they are not holding out for a bribe).

An American will hate his immediate superior’s guts, but he or she will not play stupid games like for instance pretending he has not read a directive ordering him to have the office’s computer system upgraded - thus seriously delaying efforts to achieve progress. Petty acts is not what they bring to work in Europe or elsewhere other than Africa. You may hate someone, but reserve that for out of office hours.        

In Rwanda and in most African countries (at least those that I have been to) someone with a petty peeve with a superior or a colleague will be inactive all day and afterwards engage in all sorts of mendacity to show that since no work has been done it is the colleague at fault.

This kind of mindset is one of the many problems killing Africa.

Where other people approach life with the awareness that an individual has to give his or her best effort for the common good, we tend to approach life with an utter indifference to what we have to do for the collective benefit. Teamwork remains an alien concept in many of our societies. If Kagame or any other African leader ever figures out a way how we can overcome the dangerous mindsets prevalent on this continent he will without a doubt be the greatest leader Africa has ever known. 

Worries about Rwangombwa

One of the blots on Rwangombwa’s resume (which this newspaper exposed in September last year) was his indifference - while chairman of the board of directors of the School of Finance and Banking - as an American outfit called the William Davidson Institute drew pay from the Rwanda Government supposedly to turn SFB into a first class business university.

Rwangombwa, as secretary to the treasury, would sign off on payment to WDI to the tune of Frw 185,220,000 a year and then sit back and do absolutely nothing even long after it became obvious the Michigan-based institution was taking the money and not delivering on any of the services for which the government contracted it.

You have to get worried when such a man is put in charge of the country’s finances. One can only hope that this new big responsibility will galvanize Rwangombwa into sitting up and deploying his vaunted brilliance to run a half-way decent service. Otherwise we could have another Manasseh Nshuti on our hands in about six months.

James Musoni’s moving to Minaloc has a lot of people scratching their heads and asking themselves whether this was a “demotion” or whether in fact it was a promotion. I think Kagame’s move was politically astute. He obviously still values the leadership and organizational skills of Musoni while wanting to clip his wings, to take him down a notch or two. 

For very long watchers of politics in Kigali have commented on Musoni’s alleged ambition to build a personal power base that would make him the de facto vice president of this country.

President Kagame, impressed by Musoni’s workhorse ways and his grasp of what it is to be a good “cadre” in the RPF some years back designated him his special representative in matters to do with the party. That plus the fact few people have the same ability as Musoni to act on the President’s orders quickly and efficiently. 

Musoni apparently has parlayed the powers the President gave him into creating a power base of his own.

But along the way this has created a lot of distractions - Musoni must have lost much focus on whatever duties the appointing authority entrusted with him with in any given period. Inevitably the power plays have gravitated into zero sum games with other heavy hitters on the local political scene so much so that survival for the fittest became the rule of thumb in these circles.

However one fact about Musoni that has to impress anyone is that despite the energies he has expended in these other activities, and despite the stumbling block in Minecofin that has been Rwangombwa, the man has not done as poorly as one would have thought running the Finance Ministry. Also you have to be impressed by the loyalty he inspires in most of his underlings. Only a good manager inspires the fierce loyalty “Musoni’s people” have for him.

These are qualities, I suspect, that have long saved him from being dumped all together. His new position at Minaloc can almost be interpreted in management speak as a lateral move as opposed to being a demotion. Nevertheless it is a demotion, albeit one that is not a humiliation. Do not write Musoni off yet.  

Karega’s star rises

Slightly down the ladder, Vincent Karega’s promotion from junior minister for mines and environment to replace Linda Bihire at the Ministry of Infrastructure is the rise of a skilled politician through the system. Karega has risen one step at a time through the system and is as seasoned a functionary as you can find in the corridors of power.

Linda Bihire on the other hand, one suspects, wasn’t cut out for the kind of office politics you find here, the machinations and lack of commitment to achieve goals that are such a bane of our society.

The lady was in the UK for a long time and must have been used to totally different work habits than she encountered in her one and a half years at Mininfra. To bring this scandal-ridden ministry under control needs the skills of someone with over a decade of experience in the Rwandan civil service, someone like Vincent Karega.

This is our analysis and we cannot be a hundred percent sure why she has been dropped, but she is a great personality and one ready to work hard to achieve goals.

Another question on many lips is: in addition to Linda Bihire are we seeing an end to the public life of Albert Butare and Rosemary Museminari?

One cannot be sure, for all these are people with valuable experience in government. They could come back in one capacity or other, the way former minister Angelina Muganza came back as head of the Public Service Commissioner for example. Time will tell.

As for us in the business of selling information, the only thing every journalist I have talked to agrees on about the reshuffle is that Louise Mushikiwabo’s elevation to Ministry of Foreign Affairs really changes little for us. In a way it actually is a positive development.

There are few practical advantages we have enjoyed with the appointment of Louise Mushikiwabo as information minister a year and a half ago.

This has been a politician only intent on doing things calculated to impress her bosses President Kagame and Prime Minister Bernard Makuza. Serving journalists hasn’t been anywhere near her top priority. In fact excluding from important news events (such as the comings and goings of Presidential Chief of Protocol Rose Kabuye between Kigali and Paris) those of us who have appeared to be critical of her in one way or the other has been her way of demonstrating what she thinks of us.

Now, we are told, Information is under the (lightweight) wing of Cabinet Affairs Minister Protais Musoni. Indeed.

Information now officially is the infant child of the cabinet, not much different than it has always been.

Related articles:

Reshuffle: Did President Kagame make all the right calls?