Access to Information Law will bolster fight against corruption

RWANDA HAS consistently upheld its reputation as having the lowest levels of corruption in the region. But with the Access to Information Law assented in March this year, the country can only entrench its number one position. Uganda is the only other country in the East African Community with a law on access to information. Rwanda became the 11th country on the continent with such legislation.To complement this law in Rwanda, following recent Cabinet approval, five Presidential and Ministerial Orders were approved.The Orders set a maximum of three days (two for journalists) within which a citizen should get the information they are seeking from public and private institutions, including NGOs. Information from the government is restricted only to the extent that it does not compromise national security. Other than the personal privacy guaranteed in law, public institutions and specific private firms are obliged to release unrestricted information of general public interest. The law is laudable; globally, in addition to greater access enhancing democratic rights and freedoms, it is generally known that inhibited access to information feeds corruption. It has been shown, for instance, by The Carter Center, that in jurisdictions where access laws have been adopted, requests have often tended to be by individuals or businesses seeking information relating to administrative activities that immediately affect them. These could be individuals seeking information about their rights to certain benefits, or decisions to deny the benefits for which one may be forced to part with a bribe. It also could be businesses seeking information about adverse regulatory or procurement decisions. In this sense, the right of access to information has been justified as an instrument for discouraging arbitrary state action and protecting the basic right to due process and equal protection of the law. From this, it is only a short step to see how democracy depends on a knowledgeable citizenry whose access to a broad range of information enables them to participate fully in public life, including helping determine priorities for public spending and receiving equal access to justice, as well as holding public officials accountable. It is, therefore, demonstrable that access to information allows individuals and groups to understand and take informed decisions, allowing them to improve their living standards and generally better their lives. For this reason, recent enactment of the access to information law should be applauded, if for no other reason – as someone rightly observed –, because “knowledge is power, and transparency is the remedy to the darkness under which corruption and abuse thrives.”In Rwanda, where it concerns the life or liberty of a person, the requested information shall be released within 24 hours. And where an institution or firm may show justifiable cause, they may seek extension of the period from the maximum three days to 14 days through their own request to the Office of the Ombudsman. Other than Rwanda and Uganda, other African countries with access to information laws include Ethiopia, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Niger, South Africa, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.Lest we forget, it is one thing to have great laws in place, and quite another to enforce them. Also, it may not be emphasised that any institution, public or otherwise, holds information on anything regarding a person or the nation in trust towards the greater good of the community and world at large. For this reason access to information should remain sacrosanct.The writer is a commentator on local and regional affairsTwitter: @gituram