Rwandan president to address joint sitting of Parliament Thursday
Rwandan President Paul Kagame is scheduled to address a Joint Sitting of the Houses of Parliament at Gordon House on Thursday, a day after he arrives for a three-day State Visit.
The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), in making the announcement Monday, noted that the Rwandan leader’s visit coincides with Jamaica’s 60th anniversary of Independence and “represents an important opportunity for the deepening of bilateral relations between the [two] countries”.
The OPM said that the visit will also help to reinforce “the steadily burgeoning relationship between the African continent and the Caricom region”. Kagame will also meet Governor General Sir Patrick Allen and Prime Minister Andrew Holness, as well as leading government officials.
Monday night, OPM said that a 21 gun salute will greet the arrival of Kagame’s presidential aircraft at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, scheduled for 3:00 pm.
Kagame and his delegation, which will include his Finance Minister Uzziel Ndagijmana and Clare Akamanzi, CEO Rwanda Development Board, will be received by a large welcome party, including the governor general, the prime minister, Opposition Leader Mark Golding, and members of the Cabinet including Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke and Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith.
After addressing the joint sitting of Parliament Kagame is scheduled to lay a wreath at the shrine of Jamaica’s first National Hero Marcus Garvey.
The following day, Good Friday, he will meet Holness at the Office of the Prime Minister, where he and the prime minister will sign a memorandum of understanding after bilateral talks.
A one-hour government-to-government panel discussion is scheduled for 1:00 pm, after which Kagame and his delegation will depart the island.
The House of Representatives, in the meantime, will resume sitting this afternoon as it continues the annual sectoral debate. Today’s speakers are Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams, and Opposition spokesman on mining and energy Phillip Paulwell.
