Over 4,000 convicts sentenced to community service since 2018

A total of 4,474 convicts were sentenced to community service between 2018 and June 2026, with 1,462 of these recorded in 2024 alone, as the judiciary increasingly turns to alternatives to imprisonment. Speaking duringa press conference on Friday, September 11, the Inspector General of the judiciary, Valens Nkurunziza said community service is currently applied to offenders convicted of six types of crimes. ALSO READ: Prison occupancy falls below capacity for first time in years “Community service is one of the ways of making sure that a person who has committed an offence is held accountable while also contributing to the community,” he said. ALSO READ: Over 35,000 criminal cases settled through ADR mechanisms The approach comes alongside increased use of other mechanisms aimed at resolving cases without relying solely on conventional court proceedings. Solving more court cases through alternative dispute resolution: Judiciary spokesperson Harrison Mutabazi said 19,888 court cases, representing 16 per cent of all cases decided during the 2025/2026 judicial year, were concluded through mediation, plea agreements and victim-offender mediation. Mediation alone increased from 237 cases in 2017 to 4,436 in 2025/2026, while plea bargaining rose from 934 cases in 2022/2023 to 13,596 in the latest judicial year. ALSO READ: Emerging crimes, digital justice: What’s ahead in new judicial year Mutabazi said the judiciary plans to expand the use of such mechanisms in the 2026/2027 judicial year. “We want to continue encouraging restorative justice and work with other institutions to review procedural laws so that parties can first seek restorative solutions before going to litigation,” he said. Chief Justice Mukantaganzwa said justice should not only focus on punishment but also on preventing crime and addressing conflicts before they escalate. ALSO READ: What has Rwanda achieved four years after new criminal justice policy? “The issue is not the penalty; please avoid crimes,” she said. She said some measures used before trial can also protect both suspects and victims, depending on the circumstances of a case. “For example, when someone kills someone, relatives of the victim may want to retaliate. So remand can sometimes protect the suspect,” Mukantaganzwa said. She added that conflicts do not always have to end with a court judgment, as some disputes can be resolved through approaches that address the underlying problem. Meanwhile, pending cases fell from 54,278 at the end of the 2024/2025 judicial year to 41,831 at the end of 2025/2026. The judiciary has listed rehabilitation of offenders, expansion of restorative justice and greater use of technology among its priorities for the 2026/2027 judicial year. In March, Interior Minister Vincent Biruta said that prison occupancy has fallen to 97.7 per cent of capacity, down from 140.7 per cent in 2022/2023. He attributed the decline partly to the increased use of alternatives to imprisonment, including community service, conditional release and plea bargaining.

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Over 4,000 convicts sentenced to community service since 2018