RIAM trial fails to take off

The embezzlement case against the former Director General of Rwanda Institute of Administration and Management (RIAM), Marc Kabandana, and five others, failed to take place on Wednesday as earlier scheduled. When the trial opened at Nyarugenge Intermediate Court, defence lawyers insisted that the six other suspects mentioned in the file must be summoned before the case proceeds. “My lord, I don’t see the reason why these other suspects are not here today yet they are mentioned in this file, some of them are potential suspects in this case,” Emmanuel Rukangira one of the lead counsels said. Backed by his fellow lawyers, they petitioned the presiding, Judge Innocent Musabwa, to summon Sam Murenzi, one of the individuals repeatedly mentioned in the file as a ghost supplier. The next hearing has been fixed for February 11. Kabandana is charged alongside Faustin Mugisha, the former Director of Administration and Finance (DAF), Annet Mbabazi an accountant and another suspect identified as Dominique Rwaka. Kabandana is accused of bending laws that govern tendering procedures and is said to have approved funds to be paid without following normal channels in which the government lost an estimated Rwf 203million. Ends

National

RIAM trial fails to take off