Marie Violette Mukamanzi
The 270 students from Remera Expert Motor Vocational Technical College-EMVTC from Gasabo, Kigali city, are used to the routine shifts from one workshop to another, with the same trainers, every now and then.
However, February 10 brought to them a worthy break which changed the routine for a while and, at the end of the day, they suggested: “We wish we can have plenty of this.”
The attentive trainees during the lecture
Earlier during the week, the trainees who are on one-year program were informed of a guest lecturer who had proposed to visit them for a conversation on “Rwandan Youth Crime Prevention”.
Marie Violette Mukamanzi, a lawyer by training and the guest of the day did not disappoint.
On Friday, February 10 she was at the campus before tea break, ready to share important tips that would prevent the youth from falling into criminal activities that would send them to jail and sabotage their future plans due to ignorance.
Truth be told, the motivation of the students, the welcoming community of the school was an enabling environment for the lecture to reach its goals.
After trainees warming up the room with youthful style of chants, the school director introduced the speaker of the day who was accompanied by a practicing lawyer Edison Muhayimana for an even more interactive session.
“I am already aware of your school motto; training to make an impact and your ethics and immutable innovation spirit,” Mukamanzi said while taking the floor.
“It would be sad if you ignore the laws and your innovation contravenes with the law and introduces you into crimes that would be followed by bad consequences.”
On this note, she started by defining a crime as something one can do that attracts bad consequences and is punishable in country’s laws.
The crime can even be done on self; case of suicide where an individual takes own life, thus committing the crime of killing.
The crime, said Muhayimana after introduction of the guest speaker, starts with the intention where you plan to do wrong in your heart.
“From that intention, if your conscious does not stop you, then you commit a crime, which invites the investigators, the Rwanda Investigation Bureau into your life. After the investigation, they can hand you over to prosecution which also takes you to court,” he said.
“If you are found guilty, the court sentences you to a jail sentence of several years provided in the criminal code of Rwanda.”
From this, the lawyer told them, that it’s important to be aware of the punishment that would follow a given action.
“To live good life, you have to respect the law, because the law is strict,” said the speaker.
She said that one should respect the country laws be it in public, or in a place where no one is seeing you.
This brought Mukamanzi to the causes of crimes and amongst them, she mentioned the lust, poverty, drugs, the family which in some instances may not have provided good education and affection.
Lack of skills can also be the cause of crimes in instances where one is jealous of those that have skills and harm them.
The speaker, her delegation and Remera EMVCT officials
However, good skills can also lead to crimes when someone for example uses their knowledge to harm people, cases of hackers who will use their tech savvy to steal from the bank or to sabotage systems.
Delinquency, drug abuse and lack of awareness are also other causes/sources of crimes.
An important point of the session took the speaker a valuable time; sexual harassment where trainees asked quite a number of questions and were provided with explanations.
The speaker invited the youth to avoid bad companions, find jobs, read and attend public sessions to be aware of the laws.
She told them to be honest and men/women of integrity at work, which will keep them safe and contribute to their socio-economic development.
With only three girls, EMVTC Remera is dominated by boy’s population and for Mukamanzi, this was her best choice because “sometimes boys are more victims of falling into the crimes than girls. This was a great audience,” she said.
The school director Jacques Nshimiye said they teach the youth at this school the Rwandan values which makes them good citizen.
