Rwanda National Police (RNP) has recovered 616 laptops that went missing from various schools across the country, as part of ongoing investigations.

The investigations, commissioned recently, seek to recover over 2,700 laptops donated by the government under One-Laptop-Per-Child programme that were not accounted for by schools with some of them reportedly stolen.

The investigations also seek to hold all those responsible accountable, according to RNP spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Celestin Twahirwa.

"So far investigations have revealed that 613 laptops were reported missing in City of Kigali, of which we have recovered 238 of them and arrested five people; in the Northern Province, of the 371 missing laptops, 41 have been recovered and we are investigating 81 people connected to the missing laptops; while in the Western Province, of the 157 missing laptops, 44 have been recovered and eight people have so far been arrested,”ACP Twahirwa said last week.

"Investigations have also recovered 293 laptops out of 1049 missing in the Eastern Province, where so far 41 people connected to the act have also been arrested,” he added.

At least 548 laptops went missing in 53 schools in the Southern Province.

The arrested suspects include head teachers or members of the teaching staff in the affected schools.

"Although the process of recovering missing laptops and ensuring that all those responsible are held accountable has just started, it should be clearly noted that not all of them were stolen; some went missing because there was lack of proper follow up from school management and in some cases they didn’t record the laptops that they gave out to the rightful beneficiaries,” Twahirwa said.

According to investigations, some of the missing laptops were given to the pupils but they were not recorded by the schools.

"But investigations have separated cases considered as theft and those related to poor management… each case will be treated, accordingly, with thorough investigations still underway,” he said.

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