English
Kinyarwanda
Police in Rusizi District have arrested a man identified as Mathew Mukeshimana, 47, who was allegedly impersonating different officials and defrauding unwitting members of the public.
Mukeshimana was arrested on January 4, in Kadashya Cell, Kamembe Sector following information that he was impersonating security organs and local leaders.
At the time of his arrest, he was receiving Frw200, 000 from a local resident, whom he had seduced to believe that he is a police officer attached to the department of Traffic and Road Safety and in position to give him a driver’s license.
According to Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Bonaventure Twizere Karekezi, the police spokesperson for the Western region, Mukeshimana was impersonating Police officers, investigators, soldiers and local authorities.
“The suspect, after getting information that the resident (name withheld) was in the process of acquiring a provisional and definitive driver’s licenses, he approached him disguising as a traffic officer, offered to help him acquire the permits for Frw200, 000,” CIP Karekezi said.
He added: “The resident, out of suspicion that Mukeshimana could be a conman, paid him Frw3, 000 in advance but informed the Police thereafter. He was arrested red-handed receiving what would have been the balance of Frw170, 000,”
Residents of Kadashya trading centre, where Mukeshimana was residing, also disclosed that the suspect was impersonating investigators and had defrauded some of them promising to give them related services.
CIP Karekezi thanked the resident, who reported the criminal acts and facilitate the arrest of the suspect red-handed.
“All services have proper channels through which they are accessed and given to those that need them; they are not offered on streets, road on in someone’s house. In this case, a driver’s license is not bought with someone but an aspiring driver registers, seats for the tests and acquires the license through the known legal process but not through any individual,” the spokesperson said.
Mukeshimana was handed over to RIB at Kamembe station.
Impersonation, under article 279 of the law determining offences and penalties in general in Rwanda, attracts an imprisonment of between two and three years and a fine of between Frw300, 000 and Frw500, 000, while fraud is punishable under article 174, with an imprisonment of between two and three years and a fine of Frw3 million to Frw5 million, upon conviction.
