Minister Brehan Fired Moments After Progress Report to Parliament
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has dismissed Brehan Hailu, minister of Justice, on Thursday, May 9, 2013
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has dismissed Brehan
Hailu, minister of Justice, on Thursday, May 9, 2013, sources disclosed
to Fortune. Berhan received a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday
informing the Minister that he had been removed from his position.Brehan had been serving in a ministerial capacity since 2005, when he
was appointed by former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as Minister of
Information, which later on was dissolved by law. The decision by the Prime Minister to remove Brehan from office has not come as a surprise in government circles.
Earlier he lost his position in the powerful Executive Committee of
the ruling EPRDF, when elections were held in March 2013. He was under
fire during the annual convention of his party, the Amhara National
Democratic Movement (ANDM), held in Bahir Dar during the same month in
prelude to the EPRDF congress. Both events were held in the same city
this year.
He was criticized by the bigwigs of the party for issues of
incompetence when he was nominated to the central committee of ANDM by
another member. Late last week, he was grilled by Asmelash W. Sellasie,
chair of Parliament’s Legal & Administrative Standing Committee, for
the Ministry’s sluggish conduct in completing the nation’s Penal Code,
that had been under revision for many years. Brehan had appeared before
Parliament on Thursday, reporting on the nine-month performance of his
Ministry.
Fortune’s repeated attempts to reach Brehan before going to press were unsuccessful. A representative of Debre Brehan, a small town 130Km north of Addis
Abeba, Brehan has served in several positions at the regional state
level. He was formerly an administrator for North Showa Zone in the
Amhara Regional State, and then moved on to head of the Region’s Health
Bureau, where he had joined the region’s cabinet at the time.
Before being appointed by Meles Zenawi as the Minister of Information
in 2005, he served as the head of the Ethiopian Radio & Television
Agency. He was made a minister of Justice in 2008, where he served until
last week. The Ministry will announce this new development on Jomo Kenyatta St.
in the coming few days, according to senior officials of the Ministry
that Fortune talked to.
The announcement may also include the reappointment of Leul Kahssay
as a state minister for Justice, according to officials at the Ministry
who spoke on conditions of anonymity, as they are not authorized to
speak to the media. Leul had been serving as a deputy minister of
Justice under Brehan, before he was replaced in 2010. He has been
floating with no formal appointment up until last week, according to a
senior aide working in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Source -
Addisfortune