Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) has started investigations into the circumstances a former senior police officer was murder in the capital Kigali.

Chief Superintendent of Police (Rtd) Hubert Gashagaza who was a senior officer in Rwanda National Police (RNP) until 2016 was found dead in his vehicle in Ndera Sector, Gasabo district in the City of Kigali.

According to the RIB spokesperson Modeste Mbabazi, on Tuesday morning residents of Ndera alerted security organs after they woke up to a car with a shattered window  with a suspected dead body inside.

“When RIB crime scene investigators arrived, they identified the dead body as that of CSP (Rtd) Gashagaza. We suspect the assailants smashed the window on the driver’s side where he was before strangling him,”

“Ropes, which we suspect were used to strangle him, were found next to his body. The body has been taken to Kacyiru District Hospital for further investigation,” Mr Mbabazi told Rwanda Today.

Until his retirement in September 2016, he was the Spokesperson of Rwanda National Police in Southern Province.

According to Mbabazi, CSP Gashagaza retired honourably from the police and was pursuing private businesses in his retirement.

He said they suspect it could be a criminal act and warned people against speculating on the suspected murder until investigations are concluded. He also added that there was no known case, dispute or even political links until his death.

Family sources say, Gashagaza, 59, had on Monday gone to Rusororo Cemetery to bury someone but he never returned. It is suspected that the assailants forcefully diverted his vehicle from the main road before killing him.

Mourners, including shocked friends, relatives and he former colleagues in the police force gathered at his home in Rukiri, Remera sector, Gasabo district after the news of his death emerged on Tuesday morning.

The deceased served in Criminal Investigation Department (CID) before it turned into RIB and before being deployed to the United Nation Peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic (CAR) for one year.

Upon return, he went back into police service as a spokesperson of the force in Southern Province. He is a survived by a wife and five children.