The Rwanda Investigation Bureau often locks people up before any real investigation finishes. Officers pick someone up, hold them, and only later try to build a case. That is how the system works day after day. Many of those daily arrests come from what people post or share on social media. A comment, a video, or even a simple message can bring RIB officers to the door. Once the person is in custody the search for evidence begins.
Some social media pages and accounts that support the ruling party push hard for RIB to act when someone has a small disagreement with their influencers. The complaints land, the person gets picked up, and the charges follow. Journalist Jean Paul Nkundineza spent time in prison after his YouTube videos clashed with a well-known former Miss Rwanda Mutesi Jolly and the stories around her.
Sengabo Jean Bosco Fatakumavuta is still serving his sentence now after his posts aimed at people close to the same circles. What started as online arguments turned into court cases and prison time after the social media influence.
Some people who have gone through this say they stayed in RIB stations longer than the law allows before their file reached the prosecutor. They sat for extra days or weeks with no clear reason given. No formal charges yet, just waiting. Those detained there state that when the RIB realizes that the legal time limit has been exceeded, it simply creates a new document, disregarding the number of days the individuals have already spent in the holding cells.
In 2026 there are still accounts of suspects being beaten or pressed hard until they say what the officers want to hear. People describe being hit, threatened, or kept without sleep so they will sign a confession. Those stories keep coming from different parts of the country.
There are also cases of people sent to prison on charges that later look made up. One example is Rwema Pascal. He was taken in after people linked him to critics of President Kagame. The charges that followed, according to people who know the file, did not match what actually happened. Officials then looked for citizens ready to testify against him and told them it was their patriotic duty. The testimony appeared, the case moved forward, and he ended up in prison. He is now serving 5 years time since 6 August 2024.
Rwandans talk about RIB the same way older people used to talk about the old DMI and the police CID. Those two units operated for years against anyone seen as disagreeing with the ruling party.
DMI, the military intelligence body, carried out operations that went beyond any law. CID under the police did the same in ordinary criminal cases when politics entered the picture. When those names started showing up in international reports, the government simply changed the labels and moved the same work under new titles. The practice stayed. That renaming has long been the method used to keep old patterns out of view while the same pressure continues on people who step out of RPF Inkotanyi's line.
In the view of Rwanda Freedom of Speech the whole structure needs to be replaced.
The new body should answer only to the Ministry of Justice in reality, not just on paper. Right now the papers say one thing and the day to day work follows the party. A professional service that actually follows the law would stop the pattern of locking people up first and inventing reasons later.
RIB spends most of its energy on ordinary people while bigger thefts continue. Every year the Auditor General’s reports list missing money and misused funds in public offices. Those cases rarely get the same quick arrests and public show that a social-media post receives. The small cases move fast. The large ones stay open or disappear.
The Human Rights Commission in Parliament should start visiting the prisons and RIB stations without warning. It should talk to the people who are already inside and check the files that brought them there. Too many of those files show the same shortcuts and pressure.
Anyone who has been through the process should tell what happened. Speak in your own words, put the details on record, and let others see how the system treated you. The law is supposed to treat every person the same way. Right now it does not.
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