In 2021, a journalist of Kigalitoday.com visited Mwalimu (not real name) from Murama, Bugesera district who was receiving workers in charge of indoor mosquitoes insecticide spraying.
The journalist had got a tip, that the workers could be part of a network that sells insecticides and spray wrong insecticide in their houses, which does not repel the malaria’s host at all.
The reporter asked Mwalimu what he knew about that practice, but he vehemently denied any room for the workers to be involved in such a practice.
“That cannot be possible. They(workers) receive the number of containers corresponding to the houses they are supposed to serve, how can they afford to sell of some?” Mwalimu said.
The reporter made an effort to investigate this case, but he hit a wall and gave up, until early 2024 when more reports about the malpractice emerged.
They were saying that the insecticide that is destined to malaria prone areas of Eastern, Southern provinces and city of Kigali was being sold by workers in charge of indoor spraying.
When the journalist resumed the search late June 2024, the residents of Gakamba and Murama cells of Mayange and Nyamata sector respectively said that in the past, the spraying meant bidding farewell to the malaria’s hosts, but the last time they received the service, the anopheline mosquito continued to invade their houses barely two weeks later.
“Last time, they conducted the spray, but mosquitoes bounced back after only two weeks. In the past, it would take a couple of months. I doubt the insecticide is original,” says Sylvestre Hategekimana from Gakamba.
“Do the workers sell the insecticide and use low standard one? I cannot tell because we leave the house to them during their duty and only return after they are done.”
For Angelique Umuhoza from Kagomasi cell in Gashora sector, “the new insecticide is not strong than the one they used to have in the past. Please bring back the strong ones.”
Umuhoza said she could not verify information, but news had it that the workers could use wrong dosage to dilute the insecticide.
Her neighbor Gloriose Uwamariya said:” Let’s have strong insecticides that can repel mosquitoes, period.”
One Bisangwa who was part of this staff in charge of spraying confirmed to Kigali Today reporter, that in his time, several cases could lead to some malpractices in the spraying.
“Some of our supervisors were a bit harsh to us; they could blame us for not spraying all the insecticide that we were given, yet in some cases, we could find the owners of the houses absent and remain with some bottles. With that, we could find a technique(gutekinika) so that we don’t return to them any remaining bottle,” he said but declined to be open up about this “technic”.
The word “gutekinika’, a Kinyarwanda jargon means finding a way to trick people, especially those to whom you report to, after messing up.
He however agreed that in some instances, the supervisor would connive with his team to use a smaller quantity of the insecticide, then to sell the balance and to share the outcome.
In the channel of command, a district hospital has a staff in charge of indoor spraying. The hospital has to recruit spraying team which include, but is not limited to community health workers.
Supervision of the activity is a responsibility of the hospital in their circumscriptions.
Frank Ndibwirende, in charge of indoor spraying in Nyamata hospital, Bugesera district confessed that some workers were caught in this vice of selling insecticide.
“We discovered a number of cases. Whoever is found is removed from the list of workers. Some can even be arrested,” he said.
One bottle of insecticide, says Ndibwirende, could go up to Rwf 15,000. Some farmers buy it fraudulently to use it as tomatoes’ pesticide.
However tomato growers who spoke to Kigali Today denied this allegation while saying that they buy pesticides from authorized dealers.
From Rwanda Biomedical Centre, Julien Mahoro Niyingabira, the Rwanda Health Communication Centre (RHCC) Division Manager told our reporter, that there is no cause for alarm.
He said that even though there are workers who were caught in attempts to sell the insecticides, they do not consider it a big problem.
His point is that malaria incidences and fatalities have been on decline through years, and the indoor spraying program largely contributed to the positive trend.
According to Niyingabira, Malaria infection was declined to 47/1000 people in 2022-2023, down from 409/1000 people in 2016-2017.
He however said, that there is no excuse in sabotaging the program, even if it was just one person involved.
“Even if it was a minimum contribution to this mess, we do not tolerate. We cannot accept that a single household remains without proper indoor spray. That would mean that someone is denied a chance to be infected with malaria,” Niyingabira said.
“It is something we have to denounce.”
For RBC, sabotaging this program is stealing from the government which spends huge amount. Kigali Today understands that every year, Rwanda spends $ 30 million annually in the spraying program.
