KIGALI - The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested the headmistress of Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) School, for allegedly using forged academic transcripts, The New Times has learnt.

Police arrested the headmistress; Sarah Ingabire, yesterday morning after investigations that lasted one month. According to police, the suspect has been using papers belonging to a Ugandan.

A source at FAWE said yesterday that Ingabire had duped school authorities into believing that she had studied at Makerere University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Education degree.

But records in Makerere prove that from the year of entry to the completion of the course, Ingabire was not at Makerere.

A senior six student at FAWE, who is sitting her final year examination today, described the news of Ingabire’s arrest as "terribly shocking”.

After receiving a tip off from "a good Samaritan” that Ingabire never went to Makerere and has been using forged papers for the last five years, police dispatched a probe team to look into the matter. 

At Makerere University, investigators confirmed that Ingabire indeed was using a Registration Number that belongs to somebody else.

Népo Mbonyumuvunyi, Judicial Police Director at CID confirmed the development when contacted yesterday. He said during the interrogation, Ingabire admitted that she forged academic papers from Uganda.

"She was feeding our children with poison. You cannot teach morals or integrity among children when you forged your way up,” Mbonyumuvunyi explained to The New Times at his offices in Kacyiru.

Mbonyumuvunyi revealed police’s economic and finance crimes department had put in place a team to look into the issue of forgery, which is becoming rampant in Rwanda.
"Our team is registering good results and we warn all people in possession of forged papers that their numbers are now numbered,” Mbonyumuvunyi said.

Ingabire’s arrest comes against a background of major arrests of people both from public and private institutions who use forged papers to obtain jobs.

Last month, police picked up a senior official from National Bureau of Statistics for using fake academic papers. His case is now being handled by prosecution. Last year, police also arrested a government official who had forged a PhD. 

Under the law, anyone found to have forged academic documents to obtain jobs is liable to between 5-10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rwf100,000.

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