By Ebi Kesiena
On Wednesday a Rwandan Court freed a university professor and well-known opposition figure who had been detained for 17 months for alleged rape.
According to the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), Christopher Kayumba was arrested in September 2021 after the allegations were made by several people, including a former student.
Kayumba, who founded an online newspaper called “The Chronicles”, set up a political organisation in opposition to President Paul Kagame.
Shortly afterwards, allegations of rape surfaced against him on social networks and he denied them.
He was arrested and charged with rape and complicity to rape.
But a three-judge court in Kigali acquitted him of all charges on Wednesday, ruling that the evidence presented by the prosecution “is insufficient”.
“Court finds Dr Kayumba not guilty on all the charges and orders for his immediate release,” the court ruled.
Although, the 49-year-old Professor was not present in court for the verdict, prosecutors had sought a 10-year jail term.
Kayumba, who has been in detention with no bail, in 2021 launched a hunger strike to protest against the “politically motivated” charges.
At the time, his lawyer said he was weak and frail and declined to submit to medical tests when he was taken to the hospital. Kayumba had feared any samples could be used against him, according to his lawyer.
The former Kigali journalism school lecturer ended the hunger strike after 11 days due to a “diabetic condition that had deteriorated quickly and put his life in danger”, his lawyer said.
In December 2019, Kayumba was arrested and sentenced to a year in jail for “public disturbance” after airport security refused to allow him to travel to Nairobi. The authorities said he had appeared at the airport late and drunk and had threatened to shut down the facility.
