Police arrest infiltrators for national identity cards

About seven infiltrators who tried to fluke their way into getting new electronic national identity cards have been screened out, Felix Namuhoranye, Chief Superintendent and inspector of inspection has said. He said that they were arrested later handed over to the relevant authorities to face justice. “On the first phase of registering for the identity cards some rebels wanted to trick their way in but they were arrested. Those who were planning to come went back after learning that their colleagues had been arrested,” Namuhoranye said during a press conference at Police Headquarters in Kacyiru recently. The monthly press conference was attended by the Police Spokesman, Marcel Willy Higiro, deputy head of traffic police, Benoît Nsengiyumva, CID Director Costa Habyara, and other senior police officers. Namuhoranye said that for the second phase (photography) exercise, infiltrators will not have the chance to participate at all since it involves many stakeholders including local leaders, police and the residents, since the act is held at cell level. “Many people are involved in monitoring the exercise. People carrying out the program also base on the papers that participants were given when registering, so it is a long process that someone cannot maneuver,” he said. The Police Spokesman noted that if it was easy for infiltrators to find a way of registering for the new cards, they would all do it; but it was not at all easy. Higiro said that it was not infiltrators only who had tried it, but foreigners as well. “Both infiltrators and foreigners who tried it were arrested,” he explained. He said that the same procedure was followed with photography, so it became doubly hard and eventually unsustainable. Currently people are being photographed for their electronic national identity cards at Nyarugenge District in Kigali City. The exercise commenced on Monday and was to end on Thursday, but so many people turned up on the last day that deadline was postponed. On the third day, Theresa Mukashyaka, a volunteer at Kiyovu photography site attributed the low turn-up in the first days to the four days given by the Ministry of Local Government for the accomplishment of the exercise in the District. After Nyarugenge, the districts of Kicukiro and Gasabo will follow with each allocated six days since they have more people, officials said. The photography exercise is supposed to be carried out throughout the nation and it is supposed to be completed in August, and the new electronic IDs will be issued in September. A total of 9,043,580 people registered for the national identity cards. Every person is expected to pay a minimum fee of Frw500 for the card. Ends