Corruption amongst bailiffs and grassroots leaders was identified as the major reason behind the delay in the enforcement or opposition to court rulings.

This was disclosed yesterday at the launch of a Transparency Rwanda (TR) report on the execution of judgments.

In the research, 97.1 percent of the local leaders interviewed acknowledged there were problems in execution of judgments.

According to TR, the research was based on various complaints from the public. They included delays in the enforcement of judgments after court rulings, and wrong execution or outright refusal to implement the decisions.

The report indicates that 53.8 percent of the respondents confirmed that most of the executions are delayed or wrongly executed due to corrupt implementers, who include bailiffs and Cell Executive Secretaries.

According to the law, such judgments must be executed in a period not more than 30 days, in case there is no appeal on the decision.

But available evidence shows that some of the judgments take between 6-12 months to be executed.

The main form of corruption that hinders due course of the law is nepotism, in case where the executor is related to the losing party, the report said. In that situation, the court’s decision is manipulated in favour of the losing party.

Speaking to The New Times, yesterday, MP Constance Mukayuhi Rwaka, expressed irritation with the situation, wondering why such leaders are not brought to book.

"We are building a country of rule of law, and I see no reason why such people should continue to get away with it,” said Mukayuhi, who is also the chairperson of the African Parliamentarian Network Against Corruption (APNAC) – Rwanda Chapter.

"In this country, no one is above the law and local leaders should be answerable to the people. We cannot tolerate such leaders,” said the lawmaker, urging responsible organs to make sure that the law was observed to the letter.

Other identified reasons behind the delay in executions, according to the research, are skills gaps (accounting for 23.6 percent), vague court decisions (15 percent) and insolvency of the losing party (7.6 percent).

Speaking at the launch of the report, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Pascal Rugemintwari, said that the ministry was doing its best to upgrade the skills of court bailiffs.

He said, whenever such cases are identified, the offenders are punished accordingly.

Ends