Rwanda National Police

Police in Nyagatare District, on Monday, arrested two women for allegedly attempting to traffic two teenage girls to Uganda.

Police said that Theonila Kayiraba and Sharon Uwase were arrested in Gicwamba Village of Mushenyi Cell in Rwempasha Sector with the girls aged 15 and 16 years.

They had seduced the girls that they would get them "good jobs" in Uganda, Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Theobald Kanamugire, the Eastern Region spokesperson, said.

“The father of one of the girls, suspected that there was a plot by the two women to take his daughter to Uganda, and he notified the police," CIP Kanamugire said.

"Officers were dispatched and they found the two women with two girls and in the process of crossing to their destination, they were immediately arrested and the rescued girls handed over to their parents," he added.

Kayiraba is said to be the mastermind while Uwase was also found with Ugandan documents indicating where the final destination in Uganda.

CIP Kanamugire commended the vigilance of the father and timely information sharing, which facilitated timely response to foil the trafficking act, and to arrest suspected criminals.

Article 250 of the penal code, in its first paragraph, defines Human trafficking any acts by which the individual becomes a commodity consisting in recruitment, transfer of a person to another part of the country or to another country by use of deception, threat, force or coercion, position of authority over the person, in most cases for the purpose of harming his/her life or unlawfully exploiting by indecent assault, prostitution, unlawful practices, practices similar to slavery by torturing and subjecting to cruel treatment or domestic servitude because he/she is vulnerable due to troubles with the authorities, being a single pregnant woman, ill, disabled or due to other situation which impairs a normal person to act.

Article 251 of the penal code suggests that, any person who participates in any way, personally or through an intermediary, in trafficking a person out of Rwanda to a foreign country by, means of deception, use of force, threat or any other form of coercion or  taking advantage of his/her troubles with the authorities, conflict with the  law , being an orphan, a destitute, lonely, limited knowledge, hard labour, living in a family with children close in age, unemployment, disease, physical or mental disability, a loophole in the law or any other situation likely to impair a normal person to act; shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of one to three years and a fine between Rwf500, 000 to Rwf2 million.

However, penalties under this article doubles if the victim is a child.