Drug abuse is one of the rising vices in the country with figures showing that 25,167 people are in jail for the crime, according to the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB). The Eastern Province has the biggest number of people convicted of the crime. Drug use in Rwanda is punishable under Article 263 of the law determining offences and penalties which states that any person, who unlawfully produces, transforms, transports, stores, gives to another or who sells narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, commits an offence. Upon conviction, the offender faces between 20 years and life imprisonment, and a fine of between Rwf20 million and Rwf30 million. The law also provides several punishments for different categories of offences related to drug abuse. Figures from Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) indicate that between 2018 and 2019 those prosecuted for this crime were 6067, in 2019-2020 this number increased to 6759. In 2020-2021 those prosecuted decreased slightly to 5733. In 2021-2022 these people increased again to 6608. Of these, 744 were arrested under the age of 18 and 3 per cent are those between 18 and 30 years old 14,765, equalling 58.7 per cent and those above 30 while 9,658 which equals 38,4 per cent. In total there were 3732 women representing 14.8 per cent and 21.435 men representing 85.2 per cent. Eastern Province leads in the number of people who have committed this crime with the total number of people arrested being 7122 (28.3 per cent), followed by Kigali City with 5953 people (23.7 per cent). Northern Province is followed by 5675 people (22.5 per cent), in fourth place is Southern Province with 3486 people (13.9 per cent) and finally Western Province with 2931 people equalling 11.6 per cent. According to the figures analysed by RIB over four years, drugs are prevalent among people between the ages of 18 and 30, mainly among the youth in schools. The Spokesperson of RIB, Thierry B. Murangira was quoted by local media appealing to higher institutions of learning to be more cautious about students who are likely to be abusing drugs. “We encourage school leaders to take advantage of the Rwanda Forensic Laboratory. It is an established institution that has the ability to test drug addicts and find out the amount of drugs in their blood,” he said. He added that, if you manage to find out that the child is starting to use drugs, they will be helped through rehabilitation. “It is even better for every parent to know how their child is doing. When you know that they are abusing drugs, you know how to treat them and teach them, you can even track him early so that he quits, he said.
