Kigali becoming too hot for the corrupt

Another high-profile arrest was that of Louis Munyakazi, the director of the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda.

Munyakazi, who has the look of a college professor with eyes peering out of thick-lensed spectacles and a tall, lanky frame always dressed in dark brown blazers and un-matching pants, seemed the least likely candidate to be caught in a corruption probe.

But three weeks ago, Rwandans woke up to the news that he had been arrested after investigations by the CID and the Prosecutor General’s office established he had embezzled a large sum of NISR money.

But the case that clearly highlights the government’s intent to root out graft is the one involving officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Central Public Investment and External Finance Bureau, and Strabag, a German road construction firm.

Quite a number of officials from these institutions have been arrested so far.

The first to be arrested was Infrastructure Permanent Secretary Vincent Gatwabuyenge for authorising and signed off a payment of over RwF1.7 billion ($2.998 million) to Strabag for services the company did not provide.

The payment was for installations Strabag was supposed to put up including residential housing for staff, stores and control buildings in Kigali and the small provincial town of Nyamata.

A few years ago, Strabag won a tender to build a 70-kilometre tarmac road from Kigali to the rural region of Bugesera.

Once in jail and under relentless questioning, Mr Gatwabuyenge divulged more details about the graft involved in construction of that road.

In one incident, he said, together with George Katurebe, Director of the Central Public Investment and External Finance Bureau, they conspired to exonerate Strabag from payment of a RwF 456 million ($804,000) fine for breach of contract after the company failed to complete the road in the stipulated timeframe.

A quick investigation showed that indeed, Strabag never paid the fine. Mr Katurebe was soon after arrested.

The Director of Finance at the Ministry of Infrastructure, Faustin Gacinya, was not spared either. He was found complicit in a RwF1.7 billion ($2.998 million) payment.

The head engineer in the same ministry, Eliab Munyemana, was also arrested on the same day as Jean Baptiste Habyarimana and Jean Ngarambe, two employees of Studi International — a company the government of Rwanda hired to supervise construction of the Kigali-Bugesera road.

Kagame has said he will not tolerate corruption and so far, he has shown that he means it.

“This is not a man to joke with,” said a Kigali resident.