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Kinyarwanda
Athanase Ntiyamira, 47, a resident of Kayonza District, Mwiri Sector was arrested on December 13 after he was found distilling banned crude gin commonly known as Kanyanga and other psychotropic substances.
At the time of his arrest, Ntiyamira was found with 60 litres of Kanyanga and 140 litres of magwigi.
Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Theobald Kanamugire, the Police spokesperson for Eastern region, said that the ongoing operations are targeting mainly distillers and sellers of such psychotropic substances.
“Besides abrupt operations, others are targeted basing on information sharing with community members, who exercise their community policing responsibilities,” CIP Kanamugire said.
Kanyanga and other substances that have no standards mark issued by Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) are classified as narcotic drugs in Rwanda.
Under article 263 of the new penal code, anyone convicted for producing, transforming, transporting, storing, giving to another or selling narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances faces a penalty of up to life in prison and a fine of up to Rwf30 million.
RSB specifies that only food grade processing aids recognized as safe for human consumption shall be used during the manufacture, with specified content limits.
Other standard requirements include labeling as a prerequisite; the name of the products, physical and postal address of manufacturer; net contents in millilitres or litres; ethyl alcohol content; date of manufacture and expiry date; storage instruction; statutory warnings; and list of ingredients in descending order.
