Police has refuted claims that stolen cars from Uganda end up being sold in Kigali saying instead some Rwandans cars have been intercepted destined for some regional countries including Uganda, South Sudan and DRC. 

This follows allegations by Uganda police this week that most stolen cars from Kampala are sold in Rwanda, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Uganda’s Director of Interpol, Asana Kasingye was quoted in the media saying that there was a gang of thieves that was operating within Kampala trafficking stolen cars to neighboring countries.

Responding to the news, the Rwanda Interpol Director, Supt. Jean Nepo Mbonyumuvunyi, dismissed the claims.

"We don’t have cases of stolen Ugandan cars being sold in Rwanda; we instead recovered Rwandan cars that were sold in Uganda and South Sudan and eastern Congo,” he said.

The police officer however mentioned that there was a possibility of thieves using Rwanda as a transit route to transport stolen cars destined for Burundi and DRC, adding that all mechanisms were in place to end the practice.

He clarified that at the end of the last year, two stolen cars, a Toyota Prado and a Coaster Bus transited through Uganda and later recovered in South Sudan and eastern Congo respectively.

Mbonyumuvunyi said bilateral cooperation between Rwandan and other regional police was one of the mechanisms put in place to fight the crime. The Interpol Director further noted that they had installed software at all borders to detect the stolen cars.

Regional police have recently beefed up cooperation to prevent cross border crimes especially under the auspices of Interpol and East African Police Chiefs Cooperation (EAPCCO).