Transparency Internaitonal has revealed in its report that Rwanda has the most trusted judiciary in East Africa.
The findings came from TI’s research titled; “Analysis of Professionalism and accountability of Courts for sound rule of law in Rwanda (2015)”.
Their report says only 9% of Rwandans seeking judicial services are likely to be exposed to corruption, compared to Uganda and Kenya with 14.1% and 16.4% respectively.
Burundi and Tanzania judicial systems scored 17% and 22% respectively.
In Rwanda, what made the country score high is because findings indicate that judges and court registrars abstain from corruption at a rate of 72.9%.
“It is not too bad, but there is still room for improvement,” said Appolinaire Mupiganyi, Executive Secretary of Transparency International, Rwanda Chapter.
Emmanuel Itamwa, the spokesperson of the judiciary told KT Press that the trust emanates from a high level of professionalism the country is building.
From primary courts to supreme court, the country has managed to employ qualified judges and registrars where 99.9% of them have at least a Bachelor’s degree in law.
Itamwa said, not only judges have understood the risk of corruption, but also their level of delivery is improving.
Of the 6437 cases filed this year, 5,220 cases equivalent to 81% were confirmed at appeal level.
“It means that efficiency and accuracy cuts across court levels,” says Itamwa.
Courts have also embarked on reducing the backlog from 42,670 cases in 2012 to 7,220 cases in 2015, thanks to proper allocation of judges.
Currently, a case is concluded within four months in Primary courts, and 8 months in high courts.
A relatively long delay is in Supreme Court, where a case can last for three years. Judicial officials cite lack of enough judges at Supreme Court.
However, they say government is working on new nominations, but Transparency International has noted that the general level of satisfaction of Rwandans towards the courts services is still low.
It increased from 59% in 2014 to 66% in 2015.
Over 40% dissatisfaction is linked to court fees which increased ten fold since 2013.
Currently, one has to pay Rwf 25,000 to file a case at a primary court.
At intermediate court, fees stand at Rwf 50,000, while any complainant lodging a case at high court should pay Rwf 75,000. For Supreme Court, the fee stand at Rwf 100,000.
“Increasing court fee intended to discourage people who used to lodge irrelevant cases”, said Itamwa.