The Nyarugenge Intermediate Court will on Tuesday, September 20 begin the trial in substance of Felix Nshimyumurenyi, the Director-General of Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA), and co-accused Emile Alexis Mugisha who are suspected of corruption. Mugisha was arrested on February 24 while Nshyimyumuremyi was arrested on February 25. The duo was arrested following the case filed by one Eric Salongo Kalisa, the Director of Operations See Far Ltd, who allegedly, was supposed to give them a bribe to be able to benefit from a government subsidy towards affordable housing projects. Normally, government incentivises private real estate development by setting up basic infrastructure including roads and utilities, but they have to meet certain criteria. The project in question is Kabeza Model Village which was initially expected to build 556 houses in the Kanombe sector, Kicukiro district but only 52 houses were built. Kalisa, who filed the case to Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) said that he was approached by Mugisha who promised to talk to his friend Nshyimyumuremye (DG) and help the company to get the government incentives. According to Kalisa’s account during the investigations, Mugisha requested to get three percent of the total incentive which is Rwf240 million as a bribe that he was to share with the Director General. During the bail hearing, Mugisha admitted the crime and his role as an intermediary between Nshimyumuremyi and Kalisa, arguing that the plan was to help the company to get the incentives through his friendship with Nshyimyumuremyi. Upon his arrest, Mugisha was caught with $10,900 out of $15,000 he had allegedly received from Kalisa where he said that the money was supposed to be delivered to Nshimyumuremyi. However, Nshimyumuremyi denied the crime instead arguing that he was set up and that Mugisha used his name to solicit a bribe. In addition, he told court that the money that Mugisha was caught with at the time of his arrest was not being delivered to him (Nshimyumuremyi) as he (Mugisha) was heading towards a different direction from where Nshimyumuremyi resides among other reasons. The defendants appeared before the court for the first time on March 10. Later on, March 15, the duo was denied bail and sent on a 30-day remand where the presiding judge said that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that they committed the crime. The defendant has since then been detained in Nyarugenge prison known as ‘Mageragere’.
