The Sacking of the Rwandan Health Minister Dr. Agnes Binagwaho Was Way Overdue

By Diane NKIZIRUNGU

Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, who has been the Minister of Health for five years, has been sacked of her ministerial duties, according to a statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister.

DR AGNES BINAGWAHO

A pediatrician by specialty, she has served in different positions in Rwanda. She practiced pediatric services for over 15 years and also led the National AIDS Control Commission between 2002 and 2008 where the ministry lost millions of dollars and the money was given to the RPF electoral fund in order to support Paul Kagame's elections in 2017. Dr Binagwaho also brought fake mosquito nets imported from USA in partnership with Clinton Foundation. These Mosquitonets were sent to Bugesera Health District where the issue of Malaria increased rapidly and was declared a crisis. Dr Binagwaho was the most corrupt minister that Paul Kagame has ever appointed. Here we have to know that like most of the RPF ministers Dr Binagwaho is a Tutsi elite who made sure that rural Rwandans who are mostly Hutus paid "cooperative health insurance famously known like "Mituelle here in Rwanda. This health cover is designed to fundraise money for the Rwandan Patriotic Front's fund where the proceeds are used to buy weapons and invest in Monsato leaving Rwandans hungry and in disppair. 

She then served as permanent secretary in the ministry of health until 2011 when she was appointed as Minister. During this time Dr Binagwaho was in charge 

Dr. Binagwaho serves on many academic boards in the country. Her engagements include research on health equity, HIV/AIDS, information and communication technologies (ICT) in e-health, and pediatric care delivery systems. In this capacity Binagwaho managed to secure many scholarships for Rwandan students to go and study in USA in public health and other health courses. Many US schools offered these scholarships as a way to contribute to promoting better health services in Rwanda. When all scholarships came Dr Binagwaho made sure that those who agot such opportunities were Tutsis. A good example is the Harvard Medical School. Dr Binagwaho had negotiated for her cousin to be one of the Harvard PEPFAR coordinator. This made sure that most of the PEPFAR health programs including HIV/AIDS programs were favorable to the Kagame's regime. One of the people that 

Dr Binagwaho claims to have published over 100 peer-reviewed articles however it cannot be far from the truth. Binagwaho hired many accomplished academicians from Harvard Medical School, Lancet Global Health, the Editorial Board of PLoS Medicine and of Health and Human Rights to do her work and get paid handsomely from the money that Clinton Foundation and PEPFAR generously gave to their darling dictator Paul Kagame to boost his public image as one of the countries have a good public services. Binagwaho used it to promote her academic prowess leaving many of Rwandan medical services in ruin. She continues to enjoy lectureship at the department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth where she has made name through dark deals to money hungry American professors who won many tenders to carry out dubious and bogus academic projects in Rwanda and shared the spoils with Dr Binangwaho. 

Like in the footsteps of her Master Paul Kagame, Dr Binagwaho too has received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Dartmouth College in 2010. Americans who work at Harvard like her because she generously gave them undeserved contracts and opportunities to get money for their retirement in different health projects in Rwanda. However, her luxury suddenly came to an end when Rwanda's President Paul Kagame today sacked the country's Health Minister Dr Agnès Binagwaho, whose five-year term has been ridden with scandals from a child who died from Kwachiarkor and she said that the boy was not sick at all to the Clinton Mosquitonet scandal in Bugesera and among others. Many Rwandans, especially those using social media woke up to the news of the sacking of the minister, some tweeting 'finally', as the firing letter signed by the Prime Minister made rounds. They were tired of her in all angles. According to the AllAfrican news online:

Her sacking comes at a time when there has been growing concern in the health sector, with the latest upsurge in malaria and mismanagement of health facilities as she favored westerners twho help her to do her work playing a major factor in her sacking.

The resurgence of malaria has been blamed on the government procurement of 3 million substandard mosquito nets which cost the country more than $15m in 2013.

The Auditor General, Mr Obadiah Biraro, in his 2015 report, also singled out the health ministry and its linked institution Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) as some of the government bodies with gross mismanagement of resources.

An ongoing audit in the Ministry and RBC has nipped in the bud key officials, some of whom have been arrested or sacked from government service over the last couple of months, in what turns out to be a multimillion corruption scandal.

"Dr Binagwaho protected some people during the ongoing audit, people considered to be close to her and did not want them to be investigated or arrested," a source told The East African.

The sacking of Dr Binagwaho comes after the Cabinet expelled from government service Dr Connie Karema, who headed the malaria department, and Nathan Mugume, who was the director of Rwanda Health Communication Centre at RBC, on June 24. The two were also implicated in the ongoing audit.

According to sources, the mismanagement at the country's biggest referral hospital King Faisal Hospital (KFH) has been a point of concern.

In April this year, the government ceded management of the hospital to Oshen Healthcare, which promised to invest 21 million Euros (about Rwf17 billion) to overhaul the hospital and turn it into a multi-speciality regional referral facility.

However, as we all know Dr. Binangwaho is a scapegoat of a humongous corruption in Rwanda starting from President Kagame who owns two private jets bought from the Rwandan taxpayers money and humanitarian aid from US and UK