Suspects in the Kwa Dubai real estate case, on Friday, June 16, appeared before Gasabo intermediate court of Gasabo to appeal against a 30-day remand handed to them by the primary court back in May.
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The four suspects include former local government officials and a real estate developer. They are being prosecuted in connection to the shoddy construction of Urukumbuzi real estate commonly known as Kwa Dubai, a property based in the Kigali suburb of Kinyinya.
Jean Nsabimana, a local businessman behind the real estate, Stephen Rwamulangwa, the former Mayor of Gasabo district and his Vice Mayor Raymond Chrétien Mberabahizi, as well as Jeanne d’Arc Nyirabihogo, a former director of the One Stop Center, are currently on remand after the lower court resolved that there are grounds to suspect them of having played a role in the substandard construction.
Nsabimana is charged with forgery and fraud, while the district officials are charged with abuse of office.
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According to the prosecutors, in 2013, Nsabimana signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gasabo District to build 300 affordable houses in Kinyinya sector.
He started the project in 2013, and by 2017, 120 houses had been constructed. These were made available for purchase, with prices ranging from Rwf15 million to Rwf45 million.
However, in 2015, a report from the Rwanda House Authority (RHA) raised concerns about the fact that the houses were substandard.
The report instructed the construction company to rectify identified issues within one month, but the responsible people did not do the corrections.
A subsequent inspection conducted by the RHA, in 2017, revealed that the same mistakes persisted.
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As a result, the houses were sold to clients who later started to suffer from their substandard nature which was characterised by issues like leaking roofs, cracking walls, poor plumbing, unsafe electrical installations, and poor sewerage systems.
After a preliminary trial in May, the suspects were remanded in May, but they filed an appeal against the decision. One of the reasons for the appeal, according to their lawyers is that the 2018 anti-corruption law that was used by the prosecutors against the suspects was promulgated after the offences in question were committed.
"The MoU for which they are being prosecuted was signed in 2013, before the anti-corruption law was in place. How did they commit a crime that did not even exist then?” asked Angele Buzayire, the lawyer representing Nyirabihogo, one of the suspects.
The lawyers representing many of the suspects made the same complaint, saying that the primary court should not have received the case in the first place because of such a factor.
The prosecutors, however, argued that the MoU’s effect was not limited to the year in which it was signed, because the project is still around until now.
The panel of three judges in charge of the case said they will decide on the issue later.