By Elie Mutangana

Distinguished government organs responsible for fighting against corruption in Rwanda call for consideration by the citizens to have trust in organs and report cases of corruption for prosecution and implementation of rule of Law and justice.

The call was stressed by officials from the organs on February 8 during a press conference held at Supreme court of Rwanda headquarter at Kacyiru, amid the ‘Week for Fighting Corruption particularly in courts.

Chief of Justice, Dr Faustin Ntezilyayo reminded the public that corruption cannot be eradicated without the consideration of the citizens in general. He said that although there are responsible organs such as Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), Rwanda National Police and others, all cases of corruption cannot be detected when people hesitate to report them.

“We urge people to point out the offenders so that to enable the organ implement the justice in accordance with the rule of Law”.

“Like journalists, you can conduct investigative reporting about corruption to facilitate the organs to know different prone to corruption and tricks used by offenders to help the responsible organs intervene accordingly.” Dr Ntezilyayo urged.

Corruption is a multi-faced problem that threatens democracy and the rule of law. It hampers development and affects the realization of human rights, particularly those of the most vulnerable groups, as well as transparency.

Corruption has long been regarded as of the biggest impediment to societal growth, which is why Rwanda has mobilized serious efforts to fight it.

 “No country can develop when there is corruption and other related crimes because it reverses back the development of many ecosystems including education, infrastructure, health, security and other sectors in general”. The chief Justice added.

The recent report, Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International (TI) ranked Rwanda the fourth least corrupt countries in Africa 2022.

Despite of the progress made by the government to fight corruption, there is still a journey to uproot it.

There are concerns raised by observers that people are rather preferring to report cases of corruption to Civil Society Organization (CSOs) such as Transparency International Rwanda that investigating organs such RIB and National Police.

 “I think the reason why people hesitate to report cases of corruption to our organs is because we investigate and prosecute the suspects different from what Civil societies like transparency International do. People prefers to go to CSOs because they fear of revenge from suspect part after finding guiltiness.  Secondly, given that we verify the credibility of witness, people eventually hesitate to repot to our organs”. Said Aimable Hakuziyaremye, Prosecutor General.

According to ombudsman, Nirere Madeleine, corruption in Rwanda remain intolerable. She warns anyone who involve in corruption crimes and reveals plans to eradicate it in the future.

“we want fighting against corruption be a culture and everyone’ s business. We started the awareness in schools with intention of raising children with culture of honesty and anti-corruption”. She said adding that they are working on a bill that will be enacted for rewarding individual who report corruption cases.