Parliament approves bill on new investigative organ

Legislators in the Lower House Tuesday passed the bill establishing the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB). The approval of the legislation followed long discussions on the special organ that will replace the current Criminal Investigation Department in the Police. The special organ will, on top of ordinary crimes, investigate cross-border, cyber, and terror-related crimes. Commenting on the passing of the bill, the State Minister in charge of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Evode Uwizeyimana, commended the “good work done by parliamentarians”. “Within a period of one year, all the staff in charge of investigation at the Police will have been integrated in the new body,” he said. The Bureau, he said, will enhance professionalism with open-ended independence and improve institutional capacity which will help curb the overlapping functions of some staffers in the Police. “This means that while a police officer could previously be assigned to investigate a crime and report to the prosecution and or conduct the ordinary duty of the police and then report to their superior, this time around, an agent in the Bureau will specifically be assigned to one task and report to one person,” the minister explained. Uwizeyimana further stated that the investigative body shouldn’t be considered as a security organ although agents – depending on the assignment – might carry guns. He said the new organ will be more involved in carrying out investigation for judicial purposes. The minister said that the agents of Rwanda Investigation Bureau will not necessarily be police officers or have served in the police before, adding that the body will hire many other people with various backgrounds such as criminology, psychology, among others. The Bill will now head to the President’s office for assent before it is published in the official gazette. The effort is part of broader reforms within the Justice sector that also saw the Rwanda National Police put under the Ministry of Justice following the scrapping of the Internal Security ministry. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Parliament approves bill on new investigative organ