The first six months of 2023 have registered the highest crime rate compared to the previous five years.

According to figures provided to the parliament by the Minister of State in charge of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Solina Nyirahabimana, 84,453 crimes have so far been investigated by the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) this year, a number that is already higher than the 78,373 that were registered in the entire 2022.

Nyirahabimana presented the statistics as part of an argument for a new draft law that proposes key changes in the penal code. For example, it proposes giving more discretionary powers to judges in determining fair penalties, and reduction of the time that convicts have to spend in correctional facilities before they can ask for release on parole.

It also proposes a possibility of reducing the life imprisonment sentence to a jail term of not less than 10 years, based on mitigating circumstances.

Nyirahabimana told the members of parliament that the crime rate seems to be on the increase despite the fact that Rwanda has put in place tough penalties, and thus there is a need to change the penal law from being too punitive to correctional.

The statistics she presented showed that in 2018 when the current penal law was put in place, RIB investigated 39,998, but the number increased to 48,869 in 2019, and then to 58,585 in 2020. The numbers continued to rise, and in 2021, the crimes investigated were 78,373 in 2022 and so far in 2023, they have reached 84,453.

The proposed changes in the penal law are aimed at aligning it with the Criminal Justice Policy which was launched last year in September. The policy, according to the government, will properly guide interventions and practices of institutions in the criminal justice chain and inform various changes in regards to how justice is rendered.

The criminal justice policy provides for actions that will be taken including amending the penal law (law determining offences and penalties in general) to align it with the new policy orientation for punishment and correction as well as rehabilitation of offenders.

The rehabilitation of offenders, it says, would be done through quality and effective programmes, services and re-education designed to integrate them back into the society as useful citizens to themselves and to the country.