Parliament has asked for more clarifications in a bill establishing Rwanda Investigations Bureau (RIB) in a new draft. The bill has been under scrutiny since November last year. Legislators last week requested both the government and the committee that studied the bill to revise it accordingly. The contentious articles in the bill relate to the role of the bureau’s agents, their recruitment process and their competence and limitations. “Some articles of the bill say that agents of this special organ are non-military. It sounds like a civilian institution yet its features are security in nature, there is confusion,” said MP Rose Mukantabana. According to the bill, the bureau will take on the role of the current Criminal Investigation Department (CID). It will operate as an independent body whose mandate will be to fast-track judicial coordination between investigations and prosecution. Legislators argued that if the mandate of the body falls within security principles, then its draft law should be organic and be submitted to the senate for more scrutiny. But according to State Minister of constitutional and legal affairs, Evode Uwizeyimana, the agents not need to have military or police background since they shall be professionally designated and trained. This on the other hand raised more questions from members of the House over the recruitment process of the same agents as it will have people with different expertise and backgrounds. “I am more interested in knowing how the agents will be recruited, since we were told that even people without police and or military background can be hired to work for the organ,” Mukantabana further questioned. The draft legislation states that a Prime Minister’s order shall put in place members of the body who will have the mandate to investigate ordinary, cross border, cyber and terror-related crimes. However, the legislators said it was likely to overlap functions with other security organs, including the Police and the prosecution authority. “Giving them power to make arrests or to carry guns yet the draft legislation says RIB is not a security organ does not sound coherent,” pointed out MP Marie Rose Kankera. Uwizeyimana argued that the body’s mission will be more judicial oriented (to investigate criminal matters) than security in nature. “The purpose of the bill is not for security and or defense reasons but rather bringing efficiency in the judicial sector, he explained. “Agents might have different backgrounds and skills. For example, it will need to use criminologists and these are people who don’t need to have served in the police or military,” he said. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
