In October 2020, Mukamunana’s son, Theoneste (surname withheld) was arrested for drug dealing during a random police patrol in his neighbourhood in Gasabo, Muhima village.

He was found with marijuana tucked in his jacket. He pleaded that the jacket was borrowed, and he did not know there was marijuana.

When the police confronted the owner of the jacket, he admitted to using the drug and said that Theonest indeed had no knowledge of the drug. Despite his plea, both were arrested and imprisoned for what was supposed to be temporary detention of 30 days but turned into two years now.

When Ms Mukamunana asked when her son’s trial will take place, she was told there are too many cases before his turn.

Theoneste was 21 when he was taken to Nyarugenge Prison. Together with his mother, they were the breadwinners of their family of four. Their financial status does not allow them to a order a lawyer to follow up on his case. His fate remains undecided as he awaits in Nyarugenge prison.

Theoneste’s case is one among thousands that clog drawers of courtrooms in Rwanda. This is just one of over 1,030 cases that remain dormant despite the accused spending years in prison before conviction.

For instance, between July last year and March this year, 33 percent of the cases submitted to the public prosecutor were not tried. The conviction rate and cases won by the prosecution, however, reached 93 percent, according to data by the National Public Prosecution Authority.

The backlog of untried cases does not only delay justice to suspects but also fill up prisons. There are 12 prisons capable of accommodating 48,000 inmates in the country, but they currently accommodate almost 80,000 inmates, 136 percent overcrowded. In 2021, there were 79,099 people in the 12 prisoners.

The World Prison Brief 2021 ranked Rwanda the second country globally with the highest prison population rate with 580 prisoners per 100,000 people after the United States which has 629 prisoners per 100,000 the national population.

While some argue that the issue of overcrowded prisons is correspondent to Rwanda’s unique history and high population density, lawyers argue that until some laws are reformed to become proportional to crimes, more people like Theoneste will continue to fill up prisons.

Jean Paul Ibambe, a Kigali-based lawyer working with Legal Aid Forum, a network of lawyers that provides legal assistance to the vulnerable, said there are laws that punish offenses that should be civil but are categorized as crimes.

For instance, the law determining offences and penalties in Rwanda, article 139 stipulates that “Desertion of a marital home” or when one spouse abandons their home and evades their responsibilities for more than two months, they are punishable by law with imprisonment of three to six months. A punishment Ibambe argues is disproportional to the offense. 

“There are laws that criminalize misdemeanors. Criminal laws should be made and reformed with the purpose of delivering justice faster and fairly because justice delayed is justice denied,” Ibambe said.

The government has opted to expand non-custodial sentences and diversion from the typical criminal justice system. These include the penalty of community service, the use of electronic bracelets and providing suspects with bail options. These were all adopted in 2018.

On August 13, Chief Justice Faustin Ntezilyayo signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Pepperdine University from California, US, to implement a five-year pilot of plea bargain criminal procedure where the defendant pleads guilty to a particular charge in return for a lenient sentence.

The procedure, however, is not new in Rwanda’s justice system and is said to have failed before.

“The plea bargain used to be applied to cases that have already reached the judge in court. This time, it will apply during prosecution to have the needed effect,” said Harrison Mutabazi, Spokesperson of the Judiciary.