Driving tests resume as police warns against tendencies of bribery

{The Rwanda National Police (RNP) department of Traffic and Road Safety has announced that tests for provisional and practical in driving schools will resume on Thursday April 14 in the Eastern Province, but cautioned candidates against tendencies of cheating and attempts to bribe police officers.}

The tests that started in the City of Kigali had been put to halt because of the 22nd commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Supt. Jean Marie Vianney Ndushabandi, the spokesperson for the department of traffic, said the tests will continue in the Southern Province from April 18 to 21 and to the Northern from April 25 to 28.

“The districts of Rusizi, Nyamashe, Ngororero, Karongi, and Rutsiro of Western Province will have the test in the same period with Southern Province, while Nyabihu and Rubavu will coincide with Northern Province,” Supt. Ndishabandi said.

Fighting corruption

“We have on several occasions arrested candidates attempting to corrupt police officers in order to put them on the list of those who passed, but we have also apprehended drivers with forged driver’s licence. All this informs us that these malpractices exist and we have to fight them,” he added.

“We are reminding the public to refrain from any acts of bribery; we have intensified our efforts against anyone who attempts to corrupt police officers as ways of passing exams.”

About 350 people were arrested since 2014 either trying to bribe police officers or holding fake traffic-related documents.

“Stringent measures have been put in place to fight these malpractices. But the greatest tool in this fight are the public themselves, who should stand up and report anyone that tries to offer or solicit bribes by utilizing our toll-free lines 997 (corruption) and 3511 (abuse by police officer, punitive measures are tough and strategies to catch offenders are set” Supt. Ndushabandi said.

“There is no criminal liability to anyone, who report crimes related to graft,” he noted.

Article 650 of the penal code stipulates that any person who gives or receives a bribe in a bid to assist justice in obtaining evidence for the crime of corruption shall not be criminally liable.

Bribery or corruption, he said, should have no ground nether in Rwanda National Police or in our society in general.

Article 644 of the penal code stipulates that any person who explicitly or implicitly solicits, promises, or receives directly or indirectly a bribe or any other illegal benefit , affirming to exert an influence or acquaintance for another person to make a decision whether the bribe or benefit is for him/herself or somebody else, whether the exerted influence or acquaintance produces expected results or not, shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of up to 3 years and a fine of up 10 times the value of the illegal benefit solicited, promised or received.