The High Court has reduced by half, the prison sentence handed last year to the former state minister for primary and secondary education, giving him a five year sentence which was also suspended. Munyakazi’s fine was also reduced to Rwf3 million from the initial Rwf5m in the case in which he faced charges related to abuse of office and corruption. He is co-accused with Abdu Gahima, a local businessman and owner of Good Harvest School, a private school located in the Kicukiro District. The court rejected Gahima’s appeal and his five years sentence in jail was maintained while the fine was reduced to Rwf 1.5 million fine from Rwf 2 million. Munyakazi stepped down from his position in February last year after allegations of corruption were levelled against him. How did it happen? According to Prosecution, the former state minister used his position to influence the good ranking of Gahima’s in terms of performance in national exams and have some of his students fraudulently named among the best performing in the 2019 national exams. The prosecution explained that Munyakazi used his position to influence Alphonse Sebaganwa, the officer in charge of releasing the ranks. When the 2019 rankings were released, Good Harvest came at number 9 in the country, and yet it should have been ranked 143, prosecution charged. And, for their students, one was ranked 7th in the country, yet they should have been 611. The other who was ranked 9th should have been 229. It is not clear how the system was manipulated to enable the school to jump over 130 places in the national rankings or how one of their students was able to jump over 600 places. The prosecution argued that Gahima, the owner of the school, wanted to elevate the status of his school to top ten in the country to induce parents to take their children to the school, and paid a bribe to make it happen.
