Among the many things that a Rwandan may take pride in is the minimal level of violence, especially mob justice.

The extent to which mob justice offends our sense of normalcy and what is acceptable to us as a society, was palpable in the reactions from the public to reports that some hapless juveniles had died after being set ablaze by night guards.

From what has been gathered so far, the victims died when their pursuers tried to force them out of their hideout by dousing it with petrol and then igniting it.

This was a disturbing development in a country that puts rule of law first. Apologists point to the rising incidents of crime, especially those that target property, for the loss of patience with offenders. Yet, true as it may be that crime is on the rise and the police may not always be at hand to respond to distress calls, it does not take away the fact that nobody has the right to administer punishment, let alone taking the life of another outside a judicial process.

The victims had a right to a fair trial. That anybody could behave to the contrary points to their rudimentary instincts or lack of faith in the structures of the state.

As Police Spokesperson ACP Theo Badege observed, the people who snuffed out these young lives ignored the many options available.

Cognisant of the fact that there will always be those who, for different reasons, will fall off the development conveyor, the government has put in place several social nets to mitigate such situations.

For the youth in particular, there are several rehabilitation and skills development centres that have been put in place. Routine sweeps around the country try to pick out candidates, first for their own benefit but also to minimise conflict between them and their communities.

The least any aggrieved member of the public could do therefore, was to alert the state organs to the threat the suspects posed to security and harmony.

Extrajudicial actions should be fought with all available resources because of their dire ramifications for Rwanda. Not too long ago, more than a million people lost their lives at the behest of their neighbours, who casually decided that they did not deserve to live.

We can only guarantee or make a repeat of such incidents remote, by flushing out the perpetrators of violence from our midst.