Rwanda National Police

Brian Thomson, a Canadian citizen and a pastor who has frequented Rwanda for 23 times in the last eight years made a stopover at a filling station around Nyabugogo Taxi-Park meeting with three of his colleagues.

Thomson spent about ten minutes in the car sharing a light moment with his fellow pastors, he later drove off to his hotel only to realize that his backpack was missing.

There is no doubt, it was stolen, and he was stranded.

“I called one of my colleagues who went back to Nyabugogo and talked to some people; they called the police and in less than two hours I received a call from a police officer informing me that they had recovered some of my items,” Thomson told journalists yesterday.

He added on that when he arrived at the police station, officers handed him his passport and his backpack but his iPad was still missing.

“I told the officers that my iPad was missing and they promised me that they would find it; at 10:00 o’clock today morning they called me and told me they found my iPad. This was amazing,” said the seemingly cheerful founder of Home of Hope.

“The iPad had been passes through a chain of like seven people but still it was retrieved. I was absolutely impressed and very thankful of Rwanda National Police, I feel safer here,” he said

Home of Hope is a humanitarian organization that helps about 6000 vulnerable and needy children.

The  acting Central Region spokesperson, CIP Richard Iyaremye identified the suspects as Jean Claude Rubangura 28, and Fis Habanabakize 16.

Iyaremye went on to detail how the suspects were intercepted and apprehended saying that after the case was reported to police, investigations were immediately commenced. 

“We followed the trail of the suspects and where they were selling the stole items until we apprehended them,” Iyaremye said.

He attributed police’s success in retrieving the stolen items to cooperation with the public.

“We thank the public for their cooperation with us; they assisted in indentifying the suspects. I always warn anyone involved in such practices that the police will get hold of him by all means,” said Iyaremye.