IBUKA officials jailed over survivors’ funds

Three senior officials of IBUKA, including the Executive Secretary, Benoit Kaboyi have been arrested for alleged mismanagement of survivors’ funds, The New Times has reliably learnt. Kaboyi was arrested along with the Director of Finance, Naftal Ahishakiye and Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, who was in charge of programmes at IBUKA. IBUKA is an umbrella organisation for Genocide survivor organisations in Rwanda, representing them at national and international level. It was created in 1995 in order to address issues of justice, memory, social and economic problems faced by survivors. The trio is accused among other things of creating ghost beneficiaries and inflating the figures of survivors in some districts. A police source told The New Times on Wednesday that they were arrested on April, 18 and are currently being detained at a police station in Kigali. IBUKA tight-lipped Despite the news having been the talk of town, IBUKA officials were evasive and none could go on record. When contacted yesterday, the president of IBUKA, Theodore Simburudari, threw a shroud over the affair. “We don’t have anybody arrested from IBUKA. This is the only answer I can give you,” Simburudari said by a phone before hastily hanging up. When contacted over the matter, the Deputy Prosecutor General, Alphonse Hitiyaremye, confirmed the development and said his office had already received the file on the arrested officials. “It’s about the mismanagement of survivors’ funds. They released the money but the work does not match what is on ground,” Hitiyaremye explained. He said last year’s audit by IBUKA revealed massive mismanagement of public funds, something which could not be tolerated by the government. Hitiyaremye revealed that over Rwf 400 million was unaccounted for. He also said several other officials in the organization were still under probe in connection to the said scam. The official disclosed that Ange Mukaremera, who has been in charge of social welfare for the last four years at IBUKA ,had been released temporarily as investigations into her case continue. He said that Kaboyi and his colleagues are being detained because investigations so far conducted reveal they could have participated in the mismanagement of the funds. “We don’t want them to run away or interfere with investigations,” Hitiyaremye added. In November last year, Kaboyi who has been with IBUKA for the last eight years, was suspended pending a management meeting to look into claims of mismanaging survivors’ funds. He had been requested to vacate his office after an internal audit showed some discrepancies and irregularities within the coffers of the organisation. Ends

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IBUKA officials jailed over survivors’ funds