Kagame impressed with judicial progress

President Paul Kagame has said that the achievements of the Rwandan judiciary are impressive and this should be a reason for the country to strive for better results that will see citizens access speedy justice and better services.

Kagame made the remarks while officiating at the event to launch the judicial year 2014, which was held at the parliamentary building on Friday in Kigali.

Kagame said that the good work done by the Rwandan judiciary is not only appreciated by Rwandans alone but the international community which is another reason for keeping a good record of the judicial system to attain high goals.

“The statistics shown here are good and give us energy to move on to do better when you look back twenty years ago, you can see that there has been a lot of effort in getting there. I believe this pace should continue so that we can do better and work better” Kagame said.

The Head of State noted that this doesn’t mean that Rwandans don’t have problems to solve, but stressed that there is no doubt that the country shall not give up on its responsibility of advocating for all Rwandans of all walks.

“We know some of these problems and we have the answers for them. Let’s engage everyone especially organs working along the judiciary to have justice served.

Here I mean the process of investigations, evidence, and preparation of court cases, which vitally need the aspect of intergrity more than just the education we have,” the President said.

He called for the judiciary to uphold Justice as one of the most important pillars of the country’s development, since Rwanda is a country that has built its ground on the government that abides by the law, where no one is above the law whatsoever.

Kagame also urged for a fast tracking in prevention of criminal cases such as human trafficking, drug abuse and human rights abuse among other cases that have seemingly increased in the country as a result of exposure to the region.

Locally, Transparency International Rwanda ranked the country’s justice system at a level of 79 percent, while the Rwanda Governance Board Barometer also said that country was at 74 percent in terms of residents’ satisfaction with the justice system.

On the international level, the World Economic Forum (WEF) report published on 3^rd September 2014 ranks Rwanda in 34^th position of 144 countries that have access to judicial service and rule of law, while the same report also ranks Rwanda in 1^st position in EAC region and 4^th in Africa in terms of dispute resolution.