Rwanda Health Minister Sacked From Her Job Due To Deadly Coronavirus

The deadly Coronavirus, Covid-19 which has so far claimed over 2,000 lives with over 74,000 confirmed infections in China alone has claimed its first victim in Africa.

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Rwanda’s ex-minister of Health Dr. Diane Gashumba is the first to suffer as a victim of the virus after she lost her job due to the deadly disease.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, sacked the minister on Friday for reportedly lying to him and the country over test kits for checking Covid-19.

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While speaking at the National Leaders’ Retreat Kagame said Dr. Gashumba lied to him about the availability of kits to test individuals for the deadly Coronavirus.

“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.“

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“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.

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On Friday, the prime minister’s office 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.

Meanwhile, there have been recorded suspected cases of Coronavirus in Africa with Egypt being the first country on the continent with one confirmed case of the virus.