Muferiat Kamil (left), a newly appointed head of the newly established Ministry of Peace, which will oversee the Information Network Security Agency and the National Intelligence & Security Service among six other federal agencies, left her position as speaker of parliament to assume her new post last Tuesday, October 16, 2018.
Tagesse Chafo, former minister of Public Service & Human Resources, replaced her as Speaker last Thursday. He is only the third speaker to be elected in the current term; Muferiat only held the position for six months. Before her, Abadula Gemeda served in the post of speaker from 2010 until his retirement last April. Parliament, which returned from a three-month recess in October, also approved the motion presented by President Mulatu Teshome (PhD) following a parliamentary address by the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD), on Thursday, October 18, 2018.
The President’s address to the joint session of the legislative bodies stressed the alarming breakdown of law and order in various regions. He also underscored the need to address the negatively skewed balance of accounts and amending anti-terrorism, media and charities and societies laws. The Prime Minister answered questions from MPs on the motions presented, which ranged from the use of social media, adjustment of pay scales for civil servants to conflicts and displacements of people. The highlight was his explanation of the event a couple of weeks ago when soldiers marched to the Prime Minister’s Office, which he said was carried out with ill-intent to abort current reforms. The motion was passed by parliament, as were the appointments of Abiy’s reshuffled cabinet, half of which is now made up of women, and restructured federal institutions.
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