Why should Justice sector personnel understand RFL reports

By The Inspirer writer.

Employees in different justice sector’s institutions in Rwanda ask for help to better understand what is inside the reports produced by the Rwanda Forensic Laboratory (RFL) responsible for the collection of scientific analysis of evidence for judicial purposes.

Justice officials point out that in addition to trusting RFL reports, they often do not fully understand the content of their reports, mainly due to the terminology used, which requires a person to be educated or trained.

On the part of the lawyers, it affects them a lot, because they often cannot clearly explain the content of these reports to their clients, which makes them use them blindly, because they respect them and know that expert reports are not subject to debate.

Speaking during the MENYA RFL Campaign in Kayonza District on August 31, 2022, the coordinator of MAJ in Rwamagana District, Angelique Bakayibambe said that it often complicates a citizen to understand the results of RFL because of the language.

“If the results of the RFL are given to a citizen in a language he does not understand well, it is difficult to understand because of the difficult words used,” she said.

Dr. Charles Karangwa, RFL Director General said that the contents of their reports are difficult to explain, and requested the courts to go at RFL for further explanations asthey have responsible staff.

“The report can be written in Kinyarwanda or French, you would not understand it, that’s why we have the responsibility in the court to explain it. Everyone we report to, he is guaranteed of our support when he/she appears in courts, we are ready to come and explain the report,” he said.

“This report is not easy, it is in scientific languages, there are some words that are not translated into Kinyarwanda, we have employees appointed by the government to go to court to explain it”. Dr Karangwa added.

Since the beginning of the RFL in 2018, they have received about 30,000 cases, which contributed towards reduction of the cost of the previous tests. The DNA test exam itself could cost 950 euros while today it is only 367 euros.