SOCIETY MATTERS : Law on corruption should be tightened

The corruption cancer has eaten so deep in most of the African societies. It is this disease that is responsible for the slow development in many of these societies hence leaving members of the same societies to forever live in abject poverty. Corruption is a very big concept which involves numerous vices which affect the society negatively. However, today we shall focus on the aspect of Funds embezzlement an aspect which is common among leaders in big offices in our country today. Embezzlement of funds has become so rampant in our society today where many leaders have landed in prison due the funds they have pocketed for their own selfish interests other than the interests of the society. This year alone has seen scores of such dishonest leaders who are not considerate to the people they lead being paraded in the courts of law to answer charges of embezzling the tax payers money. The efforts to track down and to charge these culprits has intensified of late and many leaders have paid the price by getting themselves several years in the coolers. The ability by the National prosecution and the office of the ombudsman to intensify the fight on corruption has been successful mostly due to the political will of President Paul Kagame to fight it. The president has come out publicly and demonstrated his will to fight any form of corruption in the country because according to him there can never be any development in this country when leaders out there are still interested in filling their stomachs at the expense of the people they serve. However, as much as the fight has intensified, signs show that our leaders are not ready to let go of the habit of embezzling the taxpayer’s money since the number of the leaders being charged over corruption cases is increasing by the day. This leaves one wondering where the problem could be and or if we are going to continue expecting a leader being imprisoned each morning over the similar case of corruption. To me I believe that the reason why these people are not slowing down as far as corruption tendencies are concerned is due to the fact that the law which punishes funds embezzlers seems to be weak. Rwanda’s law punishing corruption and related charges stipulates that depending on the judge’s perspective, the culprit of such crimes will be compelled to spend between five to ten years in jail. The law charges the embezzler for corruption and hands him a given number of years in prison after which he or she expects to be freed and left to eat the money freely thereafter something which may be instigating more and more of these leaders to continue embezzling public funds. The anti-corruption law should be tightened in order to scare the embezzlers away from the public funds so we can realize the much needed development in our society because if we still have them around, development will be hard to get. The government should start freezing the assets of the culprits involved in corruption in a bid to recover looted state funds so that they get back to the society and do what they were meant to do instead of letting the funds lie in the culprit’s bank accounts. The jail term should also be revised and some more years added to show the seriousness with which our country is against this anti-development conduct. Thus will every one who is given an office be able to account for the public funds knowing well what awaits him or her in case they dare tamper with the funds. Let us all fight corruption and completely wipe it out from our society by distancing ourselves far from any forms of corruption to avoid working hard as a society to profit a few gluttonous people. Ends