Kigali: A 43-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday March 5, in Rusizi District after he attempted to bribe a Police officer.
The bribe of Frw50,000 was meant to influence the officer to issue a mechanical inspection certificate for the suspect’s vehicle.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Bonaventure Twizere Karekezi, the Western region Police Spokesperson, said the vehicle had mechanical faults and failed the inspection.
“On Monday, March 3, the suspect took his vehicle to Kamembe where the mobile testing lane is stationed. During the inspection, it was observed that the vehicle had braking and steering issues, which he was supposed to fix and book for reinspection,” SP Karekezi said.
He added: “Instead of fixing those mechanical faults, he came back early on Wednesday and tried to unlawfully influence the police officer by offering him Frw50,000, to issue a mechanical certificate for his faulty vehicle leading to his arrest.”
The suspect was handed over to Rwanda Investigations Bureau (RIB) at Kamembe station for further investigations.
Article 143 of presidential decree No 85/01 of 02/09/2002 regulating general traffic police and road traffic, states that vehicles not satisfying the set technical criteria will not be issued a certificate allowing them to circulate on the public highway.
An additional visit will be necessary in order to certify that defects noticed have been corrected.
According to article 4 of the Law on Fighting Against Corruption, any person, who offers, solicits, accepts or receives, by any means, an illegal benefit for himself/herself or another person in order to render or omit a service under his or her mandate, commits an offense.
Upon conviction, the offender is liable to imprisonment for a term of more than five years but not more than seven years, with a fine of three to five times the value of the illegal benefit solicited or received. (End)