{Emmanuel Dushimirimana, a resident of Nyankurazi of Kigarama Sector in Kirehe District, spent years doing and trafficking narcotic drugs. Recently, after years of nightmares and arrests, the 21-year old decided to quit and take a right direction.}
On February 3, Dushimirimana narrated his ordeal to the people of Kirehe as he campaigned against sell and use of illicit drugs through his testimony.
“Dealing in drugs made me poor instead of making me rich. I would spend money trafficking them but at the end Police would seize them and that money is blown off just like that. In some other cases, I would just abandon it and runaway for fear of being arrested,” said Dushimirimana.
Dushimirimana was giving his testimony shortly after a public exercise to destroy over 1000 kilogrammes of cannabis, 715 litres of kanyanga, a banned crude gin in Rwanda and over 1200 pieces of plastic bags, an event that was graced by about 2000 people, majority students.
They were seized from dealers in varied successful public-facilitated police operations conducted in the last three months in Kirehe.
“I was arrested several times; I can’t even recall a day I made a profit from cannabis I had trafficked apart from the little I would abuse,” Dushimirimana narrated.
Dushimirimana, who quit absing and selling drugs about three months ago, advised the youth to venture into legal income generating activities rather than taking the “impossible path of doing business.”
For the past three months, Dushimirimana has been running a small shop he started after abandoning dealing in drugs, which he said has grown from Rwf50, 000 when he started to Rwf200, 000.
Kirehe District Police Commander, Supt. James Rutaremara, while speaking at the event, commended the role the residents played to seize the destroyed substances, and arrest of suspects.
He appealed to them not to wither but rather strengthen collaboration and timely information exchange about drug dealers and other individuals that could be involved in criminal activities.
Bernard Tugume, the director of good governance in Kirehe, also appealed to the residents to be central in breaking the drug supply chain.
With Kirehe marked as the major route for drug traffickers, the reinforced operations and awareness campaigns have seen drug related crimes reducing in the district.
At least 74 per cent of narcotics trafficked into Rwanda pass through Kirehe.
Late last year, about 1.6 tonnes of cannabis and over 183 litres of Kanyanga seized in the district, were also destroyed.
Between January and July last year alone, a total of 137 dealers including 15 women, were arrested in the Eastern Province in drug related crimes
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