500 Rwandan Judges Loses Jobs, 223 Newly Appointed

As an initiative to improve the performance of judiciary the Rwandan government sacked more than 500 judges on Tuesday and appointed 223 new professionals.

The judiciary system in the country is crippled by thousands of cases of 1994 genocide. The sacked judges are said to have lacked professional qualifications and were hastily appointed.

The 1994 genocide killed more than 500,000 people.

In the month of July the Rwandans voted for electing people to mediation committees that will reduce the workload of conventional courts by handling minor civil and criminal complaints.

Mediation committees existed extensively in Rwanda earlier but the Belgian colonial rule abolished it completely before leaving the country in 1960 independence year.

In local language the traditional committees are known as “Abunzi” or “United.” It is run by local people appointed by the community and the maximum sentence they can handle is life in prison.

The government reintroduced the traditional courts in 2001 to try low-level genocide suspects.