Rwanda National Police

A woman identified as Feza Uwamahirwe, 37, was arrested mid this week in Rubavu District with 10 kilogrammes of cannabis.

Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Emmanuel Kayigi, the Police Spokesperson for the Western Region said that Police and local leaders in Rubavu sector responded to information from residents about Uwamahirwe's drug dealings.

"On August 8, some residents of Rebero Village in Gikombe Cell, who suspected Uwamahirwe to be a drug dealer trafficking cannabis from Democratic Republic of Congo, saw her with a consignment which they suspected to be cannabis, and they called the Police and local leaders," CIP Kayigi said.

He added: "They responded, searched and recovered a bundle of 10kgs buried in her garden in the backyard of her house."

According to CIP Kayigi, Uwamahirwe has been arrested and detained on several occasions over the same crime.

He commended the responsiveness of the residents to fight trafficking and selling of narcotic drugs by reporting Uwamahirwe's "criminal business."

Rubavu is mapped as one of the transit routes and destination of cannabis, and thus operations and other community policing efforts have been strengthened in such identified districts to break chains of supply.

Article 263 of the new law determining offenses and penalties in general, states that “Any person who, unlawfully produces, transforms, transports, stores, gives to another or who sells narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances commit an offense.”
 
Upon conviction, the offender faces between 20 years and life imprisonment, and a fine of up to Rwf30 million.