The Lower chamber of parliament recently initiated and passed a bill aimed at penalising all those people who will be convicted of genocide ideology crimes with tough punishments. The lawmakers defined some of the acts through which genocide ideology is manifested as follows; speeches, documents, threatening words and other acts aiming at exterminating or inciting others to exterminate people basing on tribe, religion, color, physical appearance, sex among others. According to the bill, “any person convicted of the crime of genocide ideology shall be sentenced to an imprisonment of ten to twenty-five years and a fine of between Frw200, 000 and Frw1million. It stipulates that any person found guilty of the crime of genocide ideology or commits recidivism shall be sentenced to a life imprisonment. The bill against genocide ideology crimes also provides that; an association, a political organisation or a non profit making organization convicted of the genocide ideology crimes shall be subjected to a punishment of its dissolution and a fine of up to Frw5 million. It further states that in case a genocide perpetrator is a leader in public administrative organisations, political organisations or a former leader, current leader in private administrative organisations and non governmental organisations, shall be sentenced to between 20 and 25 years imprisonment and pay a fine of Frw1million up to Frw2million. The vice president of the Lower chamber of parliament Denis Polisi recently explained during a plenary session that there has been no law in place to punish those people found guilty of genocide ideology crimes but this could now been solved. “The government could not punish those found guilty of genocide ideology crimes and the evidences were not clearly stated, but the law has come and we hope to curb the vice in our country,” MP Polisi explained. He pointed out that it took more than fifty years for the Genocidal governments to corrupt minds of Rwandans with the hateful ideologies of divisionism and genocide which resulted into the 1994 Rwanda Genocide that claimed one million Rwandans. Therefore, it was necessary for the Lawmaking body to put up a law against the vice as one of the stringent measures to curb the problem. The law on genocide ideology crimes has no boundary since it does not provide immunity to leaders in their respective capacities. MP Evariste Kalisa said Parliament can not just sit back when some people are spoiling the young generation with the bad ideologies of genocide, that’s why families have to be punished for genocide ideology crimes manifested in their children below the age of 18. This comes at a time after a parliamentary probe last year, revealed an alarming rate of cases of genocide ideology in several secondary schools across the country, some scoring as high as 97 percent. Association pour la Culture, l’Education et le Developpement Integré( (ACEDI) de Mataba, a school in Gakenke District, Northern Province and Ecole Secondaire de Gaseke in Gicumbi District, Northern Province, were the schools found with most genocide cases, tying at 97 percent cases. The inquiry came up with a list of eleven schools, which are leading in cases of genocide ideology countrywide. In the same report, anonymous letters (tracts) were being circulated in some secondary schools carrying such writings as ‘Abatutsi ni inzoka, baraturambiye kandi tuzabica’, loosely translated to mean ‘Tutsis are snakes, we are fed up with them and we will kill them. This prompted the House to summon the Two Education Ministers, Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya and Joseph Murekeraho, State Minister in charge of Primary and secondary education to explain what their ministry was doing to curb the vice, but they failed to give convincing practical measures in place. Up to now, they await to reappear before the lower chamber of parliament for further explanations of the ministry’s tough measures against the vice. The law will curtail all the bad practices by teachers who do spread the ideology through teaching students hateful messages which led the country into the bad history of 1994. Lawmaker Alfred Kayiranga Rwasa suggested that teachers convicted of genocide crimes should be stopped completely from practicing the profession and have their academic papers cancelled. Lawmakers said that the law aims at halting all the continued hostile agenda targeting Genocide survivor students in schools by the school authorities. The MPs also stressed that the law will also halt and penalise those who still convey genocidal language or make statements ridiculing survivors. “Some school administrators and teachers responsible for propagating genocide ideology among students, will not be given room to teach, the law has come to curb all those cases,” legislator Francis Kaboneka said. The law on genocide ideology crimes will also help the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) to foster unity and reconciliation process in the country. It is a collective responsibility of all to support the parliament’s initiative of uprooting the brain cancer that drew the country into the bad history of 1994 and work for the country’s development. Ends
