On October 22, Theopista Nyiramahoro, a businesswoman from Kirehe district, was waiting to hear the Gasabo Intermediate Court's verdict on her release or sentencing in a case involving several suspects in the ongoing fertiliser scandal.
The judge had adjourned the case on October 16 and said the verdict would be announced on October 22 at 2 pm.
Family and friends showed up. At 1:58 pm, the courtroom was empty. At 2 pm, a family friend who had appeared in the court to hear the verdict asked the court clerk what was Nyiramahoro's fate.
He was told that Nyiramahoro would remain remanded for 30 more days.
The verdict reads: Today on the 2020-10-22 at 14:00 the TGI Gasabo at Kigali City, Gassbo where it tries criminal cases, has pronounced the RDPA 00279/2020/TGI/GSB Nyiramahoro Theopiste, vs NPPA Gasabo…dismisses her appeal and rules that she remains detained.
End of story.
Nyiramahoro is contesting illegal detention since July. During her substantive hearing on October 16, her lawyer, Clement Cyiza, challenged the court to explain why his client was being illegally detained and then forced to face charges before she even contents her detention.
His submission yielded no positive results.
His client is accused of conniving with another suspect, Alfred Nkubiri, who is critically ill, to forge lists of fertiliser beneficiaries. Nkubiri has also been in attendance since end June together with other suspects in the same case.
Before further hearing proceeds, the prosecution repeatedly appealed before the court that these suspects should remain behind bars because it fears they would flee the country and evade justice.
Defence teams on the other side have been arguing that all provisions regarding detention were abused and their clients' rights being both abused and denied, saying that since July, no single person on the Rwandan territory had the ability and means to move because the country was under lockdown. The court has since dismissed the plea.
On the morning of October 22, Evariste Nsengiyumva, another suspect appeared before the same court and charged with similar allegations of forgery.
In a lengthy session where his lawyer battled the prosecution for almost two hours, the judge heard the two sides face-off on both material and logical substance.
Three subjects dominated the arguments. One, the nature of the alleged forgery in question, two, the process and people involved in the forgery and three, the institutions involved.
The prosecution contended that the suspect facilitated the creation of ghost lists of farmers who would benefit from subsidised fertilizers and later claim funds from the Ministry of Agriculture that is primarily responsible for extending this benefit to farmers as a national policy to improve agricultural productivity and hence increase household incomes.
Regarding the process, the prosecution claimed that the suspect hired agro-dealers, who in this case were responsible for distributing the fertilisers, to play a role in the creation of the farmers' list.
When tasked by the judge to explain further, it was concluded that this is false. After being challenged by the lawyer, both sides agreed before the judge that the list was created by a team of local authorities.
How? A cell leader together with an expert from the Ministry of Agriculture, would identify a farmer, assess the land and conclude the amount and type of fertiliser to be given to the farmer. The list would be approved by the sector, the district together with a focal point person from the ministry. All lists bare a government stamp and thus can hardly be forged by a mere fertiliser supplier.
It is from this list that the ministry would determine how much fertilizer a contractor would be given to supply a particular whole district.
Farmers on the list would show up at the sector with vouchers with their details and QR code only produced by the ministry to collect their fertilisers from a stock managed by an agro-dealer contracted by the ministry.
The agro-dealer would be allocated a margin between Rwf10 and 15 off the value of a kilogramme. The supplier would earn a fee for the logistics services and a margin from the collections of payments made by farmers to a SACCO account of which authorities had access to.
To claim their money, the agro-dealer would submit these lists to the supplier as evidence of delivery to the ministry. The list would be verified by local authorities before it is released to the supplier to curtail forgery, manipulation and possible embezzlement or corruption.
In the event farmers failed to pay for the fertilisers, two conclusions would drown. It would be because of loss of productivity due to pure defaulting or due to bad weather, which would be ascertained by the expert team from the ministry.
Where is the case?
Rwanda's economy had experienced limited effects of global economic slowdown due to the 2008 global economic meltdown.
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, a Global Financial Crisis Steering Committee had been established to manage the impact on Rwanda of the global financial crisis.
Growth projections had been revised downwards to 6% in 2009 to reflect the dampening effects of the slowdown on investment outlays and faltering export performance.
The negative impact had been taken into account by Rwanda, and reflected in limited spending and additional programs in the agriculture sector, for example, the restructuring of the crop intensification program and a voucher system for fertilizer for smallholders.
The risks remained, however, on the downside and additional financing needs that arose during 2009 to cope with the downturn of the global economy.
Given the limited scope to increase arable land, vulnerability to shocks, and a high rate of
population growth, the emphasis was put on increasing agricultural productivity through improving water management, controlling soil erosion, intensifying the use of fertilizer, integrating livestock development into crop farming, and enhancing extension services.
These programs provided the opportunity to address some of the fundamental constraints to agricultural growth in the country.
This plan had a name: The Poverty Reduction Strategy Support Programme ((PRSSP). This plan was under another 5-year grand plan, the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS).
The buzz around EDPRS II was everywhere: on a t-shirt in a gym, in several conference rooms and most importantly, in the news.
The government pumped in billions of francs, with support from development partners such as the African Development Bank.
The magic worked.
On February 7, the results of the 3rd Rwandan Household Living Conditions Survey, EICV 3 were released. Rwanda had pulled off a 'hat trick' of rapid growth, sharp poverty reduction and reduced inequality, according to one expert in development. 
About 1.2 million Rwandans had been uplifted from poverty, thanks to the programs and the various partners who played a role including suppliers of fertilizers.
However, through the years, these programs were characterised malpractice such as embezzlement of funds, corruption, misappropriation of funds and poor management of contracts.
In some cases, fertilisers would be stolen and sold to neighbouring countries.
The auditor general would report about these cases every year until recently when President Paul Kagame asked concerned institutions why the case of fertilisers has never been dealt with.
Arrests were quickly made and charges filed against over a dozen suppliers and distributors.
Legalities vs justice
In the process, legal aspects, according to experts, were ignored. The issue has since become a hot political potato and everyone involved is scared of finding themselves falling short in resolving the matter.
Prosecutors and investigators are being accused of abusing their powers to coverup for government officials and instead of throwing suppliers under the bus.
The ministry of agriculture compiled dossiers and unsubstantiated testimonies to pile blame against contractors and save officials from any liability.
Some suspects have since July been contesting illegal detention without trial and fabricated charges.
At first, the ministry of agriculture filed a lawsuit against suppliers accusing them of embezzling funds, forging lists and vouchers.
Investigators made interrogations, filed charges and submitted dossiers to prosecution.
A case of embezzlement was later dropped along the way because it was identified that it is actually the government that owes suppliers money in unsettled arrears totalling over Rwf9 billion. 
Lawyers have told Taarifa that suspects were blackmailed and forced to pay sums of money equivalent to what government owed them to secure their release.
Some paid the money others didn't. Not everyone who paid was released either. For example, one Evariste Rukumba paid Rwf7 million and has never been released yet another suspect, Eugene Rwibasira paid Rwf50 million and was released.
Taarifa has learnt that local authorities have been running up and down mobilising farmers who had arrears to clear them as soon as possible so that they [officials] can get away with the failure to assist suppliers to recover their pending payments which was at first regarded as embezzled money when they were being arrested.
TrialsÂ
The judiciary is still navigating tough waters of the case. One of the suspects, CEO of Top Service LTD, Ladislus Biguma Mwitende, who is serving a jail term for conniving with ministry staff to swindle hundreds of millions of fracs, also appeared on the list, but no charges have been laid against him.
Sources say he is the king pin of fertiliser mafia network in the country. Ironically, he went down alone. No official has faced trail in this whole saga. Even in the ongoing trails, no official has been summoned nor brought to court to answer any charges.
Meanwhile, today the Gasabo court will pronounce it's verdict on Evariste Nsengiyumva and Laurent Rugerinyange whose cases were heard on October 22.
Their lawyers appealed to the court that apart from their clients being detained illegally, the production has not provided any evidence pin them.
Sources confirmed to Taarifa yesterday that Nkubiri, who is critically ill, will appear before court this Friday to contest his detention, while his co-accused, Theopiste Nyiramahoro, remains behind bars as she awaits an appeal against her detention pending further hearing into her alleged charges.
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Verdict Excpected Today On Co-accused In Fertilizers Case Involving Tycoon Nkubiri
The post Prosecution Faces Litmus Test In Ongoing 'Fertilizer Saga' As Lawyers Poke Holes In Case appeared first on Taarifa Rwanda.
