Yesterday we reported on the arrest of Dr. Louis Munyakazi, Director General of the National Institute of Statistics, who is under investigation for embezzlement, abuse of office and the misuse of public funds.

In an interview with The New Times, the Commissioner General of Police Mary Gahonzire, commenting on this latest arrest said, "It is about corruption and you know very well our country has no room for corrupt officials.”

Gahonzire’s sentiments resonate well with the rest of the country’s leadership stance against the rot that corruption is. It is a vice, like a cancer it eats away at the moral fabric of society.

The tough stance taken by the government should be commended for many reasons, the main one being that public resources are utilised for the good of the nation as a whole.

Corruption is no longer synonymous with African governance, the usual stereotype of African politics or politicians.

Rwanda’s leadership leads by example. The fact that this is one of the rare governments in the world which has Ministers and MPs who do not receive ‘government vehicles’ as part of their ‘hefty’ packages, as is practised elsewhere, is commendable.

Rwandans leant from the bad politics of the past that culminated, in the 1994 Genocide, how a country can be brought down to its knees through corruption.

The late President Juvénal Habyarimana, led a lavish lifestyle at the expense of citizens who languished in poverty.

Since 2008, this paper has reported on corruption cases involving a few high ranking government officials, others who today are on the run.

Corruption in all its forms undermines development, scares away investors and kills the morale of hard working citizens.

Ends