Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) has sworn in 88 staff members, who include 70 investigators, two leaders and 16 support staff, in an event held in Kayonza on Friday.
This is the conclusion to the series of events of swearing in 791 investigators and staff in four provinces of the country and City of Kigali; in addition to those who had been appointed by the Cabinet two years ago when RIB was established.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Johnston Busingye, said that all investigators in the country have now taken oath of office, as stipulated by law.
The worrying crimes that Busingye urged the investigators to fight include gender-based violence, child defilement, human trafficking and corruption, among others.
He said RIB will be strong and maintained when its investigators are able to achieve their mission; preventing crimes, investigating and identifying criminals.
“When a criminal commits the crime, they are well aware that there will be negative consequences, we are in charge of taking legal action against them… when the RIB that must prevent, investigate and identify the criminal, are unable to identify the criminals and their motives, this will motivate the criminals, and they will commit the crime again,” he pointed out.
Being a successful investigator requires passion, according to the minister, and the investigator who fails to identify the criminal and their motives slowly destroys the RIB institution. Finding the wrongdoer, on the other hand, is building the RIB, he explained.
The minister said being an investigator and people accusing you corruption is not surprising, and they should not be worried by that. It would only be terrible if what they say turns out to be true, he reminded.
“Fight crimes until someone will say, 90 percent of our people are law-abiding citizens, the citizens who tell themselves to do the right thing all the time, without doing the wrong when nobody sees them.
“We are all humans, we have where we come from, one has friends, has former classmates, with friends of friends, but when we get in this office, when we get in this career, we put all that aside,” he discussed.
RIB’s Deputy Secretary General, Isabelle Karihangabo, said that although the investigators have been in this service for more than one year, nothing affected their responsibilities, since they had sworn to fulfill their duties when they were still members of police force.
She said they have not reached the needed number of staff yet, but it is mostly due to the fact that they were allowed to recruit in series.
“We are still increasing the number, there are also more than 100 currently on training and will join us soon when the training is over,” she declared.
Karihangabo admitted that having less number of investigators gives a heavy work to those on this duty, but they hope to get more as the time passes.
