Nyamasheke official accused of corruption

The Executive Secretary of Nyamasheke District in Western Province, Jean Pierre Ndagijimana, is being questioned in Nyarugenge Intermediate Court over charges that he tried to bribe an official at the Office of the Ombudsman to cover up a false declaration of his wealth. Police on Friday filed the corruption case after the official was caught red-handed following complaints and tips from the Office of the Ombudsman, the police spokesperson Theos Badege said on Friday. Badege said they are accusing him of bribing, which is punished by article 641 of the Rwandan penal code. According to Jean Pierre Nkurunziza, the spokesman of the Office of the Ombudsman, the official was caught while bribing a staff of the office of the Ombudsman with Rwf 800,000 in a deal of Rwf 1.5million. The idea to bribe, he said, came after Ndagijimana had lied during declaration of assets and wanted the staff to cover him. The staff notified his office about the issue and they started dealing with the police to arrest him the day of receiving the bribe. The deal took place in Kigali and the police was notified; thus they found him while counting the first instalment to give. “The deal was such that he was to give Rwf800,000 in that very morning on Friday, Rwf 200,000 in the evening and then the rest would be paid after the issue to pursue him (over false declaration of wealth) would seem to rest,” Nkurunziza said. Nkurunziza said that a concerned citizen in Nyamasheke had disclosed that the official had registered many of his assets under other people’s names during the Ombudsman’s annual exercise of declaration of assets which aims at fighting corruption among civil servants. The Office of the ombudsman started investigations and was able to confirm that the official indeed had other assets that he did not declare, Nkurunziza said. “We would not disclose which assets are concerned since it would hamper investigations. All we realized is that he had registered some of his assets on other people which is suspicious,” he said. Ndagijimana’s questioning will continue tomorrow, the spokesperson of the Rwandan Prosecution, Alain Mukuralinda, revealed over the weekend.