Kigali becoming too hot for the corrupt

Rwanda is turning the screws on corruption in public offices with a crackdown on suspects that has resulted in several arrests of top officials.

The police, working under Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga, have arrested senior officials from the Ministries of Education, Infrastructure, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, the Central Public Investment and External Finance Bureau, and Strabag, a private firm.

The first to be arrrested by Mr Ngoga — President Paul Kagame’s anti-graft czar — was Justin Nsengiyunva, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education.

Nsengiyunva was arrested in November last year after police were tipped off by a businessman that Nsengiyunva was demanding a bribe before authorising a payment order for the supply of IT equipment to the ministry worth 99.7 million Rwanda francs ($176,000)

The police, working with the businessman Moses Byaruhanga, trapped Nsengiyunva’s accomplice, Evariste Gasirabo, an employee with the Central Bank.

Mr Gasirabo had initially asked for RwF3.5 million ($6,200) to ‘facilitate’ the signing of the order but this was negotiated down to RwF2 million ($3,500).

Mr Byaruhanga informed the Criminal Investigation Department about the solicited bribe. The CID in turn supplied him with the RwF2 million ($3,500) in marked banknotes.

At the appointed venue, Byaruhanga handed the money to Gasirabo and the police pounced, arresting the latter with the incriminating evidence.

The police then went for Nsengiyunva who reacted by trying to bribe the officers — another offence.

To attempt to bribe a police officer in Rwanda is tantamount to presenting yourself at the nearest police station to report your crime!

Nsengiyunva and his sidekick were immediately led away to jail pending court cases for soliciting a bribe, extortion and attempted bribery.

But much as the Rwanda government is committed to fighting graft and all kinds of abuse of office, there are those who are wont to look the other way or even abet the crime.

After about a week in jail, Nsengiyunva escaped. It is suspected his escape was engineered by some powerful government officials who were afraid that, when interrogated, he would implicate them in corrupt deals.

Talking to this writer, Mr Ngoga said corruption got the man in, and it got him out.

Rwanda has issued an Interpol alert for Nsengiyunva, who is still is at large.