The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) has dismissed an appeal filed by Rwandan businessman François Xavier Mironko against the State of Rwanda, ordering him to bear the costs of the appeal and pay damages.
The ruling was delivered on February 28, 2025, during an EACJ session held in Kigali. The five-judge panel included:
- Justice Nestor Kayobera (Burundi) – presiding judge and President of the EACJ
- Lady Justice Anita Mugeni (Rwanda) – Vice President
- Justice Kathurima M’Inoti (Kenya)
- Justice Cheborion Barishak (Uganda)
- Justice Omar Othman Makungu (Tanzania)
For over an hour, the audience sat in tense silence, awaiting the court’s final ruling. The case was unpredictable, and the audience remained anxious as each judge read a portion of the ruling. It was only when the presiding judge read last that the final decision became clear—Mironko’s appeal was dismissed, and he was ordered to pay damages to the Rwandan government.
“The upshot of our consideration of the appeal is that the appeal be, and is, hereby dismissed. The appellant should bear the costs of the appeal and the cost of the reference in the trial court,” the judge ruled before calling off the session.
Burundian Justice Nestor Kayobera, also the Judge President of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ),
A Case That Spanned Over a Decade
Mironko’s legal battle against the Rwandan government dates back to 1993 and 1994, when he was awarded a tender to supply military equipment. He later claimed that the government had not fully paid him, leaving a balance of 7.1 million Belgian Francs.
His case first went through local Rwandan courts, where he was awarded Rwf3,815,644,925 (about $3.2m). However, dissatisfied with the ruling, he exhausted all appeal options, leading the Office of the Ombudsman to refer the case to the Supreme Court, where he lost.
This prompted him to take the matter to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) in 2018, which first ruled on the case in 2022, dismissing it as time-barred. Refusing to accept the decision, Mironko lodged an appeal, leading to the latest ruling in February 2025—nearly seven years after he first filed at the EACJ and more than 30 years after the original dispute.
Court’s Key Findings: Why Mironko Lost
The EACJ appellate court upheld the First Instance Division’s 2022 ruling on three major grounds:
- The case was filed too late – Mironko had failed to meet the two-month deadline for submitting his case under Article 30(2) of the EAC Treaty.
- The court lacked jurisdiction – The EACJ ruled that it could not intervene in national court decisions or litigate governance issues, as Mironko had requested.
- Mironko must pay damages – The judges found that Mironko had deliberately pursued a case he knew was baseless, justifying the unusual order for damages.
“We take into account the conduct of the appellant, who attempted to pursue a matter that had been settled many years ago, through the backdoor, under the guise of a claim against the Ombudsman’s refusal to review the decision of the Supreme Court of Rwanda,” the presiding judge stated.
The court further ruled that under normal circumstances, an appellant is not required to pay damages beyond legal costs. However, given the nature of Mironko’s appeal, the court made an exception.
“In these circumstances, we are satisfied that there is a good reason to depart from the general rule. We award the respondent state the costs of this appeal and the costs of the reference in the trial court.”
The judges also noted that the court had no mandate to handle governance matters as Mironko had argued.
“All the relief sought by the appellant is unavailable. This court has no basis to make any order as prayed by the appellant once it found that the reference was time-barred.”
The appellant’s lawyer and the state attorney sat between the audience benches and the jury, facing the court clerks as the judgment was read.
The panel of five judges, dressed in judicial robes with East African Community flag stripes, sat on an elevated bench.
As soon as the final ruling was announced, Mironko’s female lawyer abruptly left the courtroom in apparent displeasure, avoiding questions from journalists.
The court session had a low audience turnout, with only a dozen people present, mainly journalists and Mironko’s family members, who remained silent.
History of Legal Disputes
Mironko is no stranger to the courts. In August 2024, Rwanda’s Supreme Court ordered him to pay Rwf 900 million ($700,000) to three former business partners in a 25-year-old business dispute. The partners had accused him of eliminating them from their jointly owned company, SIRWA, and sought compensation for lost profits over the years.
When Mironko failed to comply, court bailiffs moved to auction his assets. He later pleaded with the Minister of Justice for reprieve.
His legal troubles don’t end there. At one point, he spent time in jail for undermining Supreme Court judges in his battle with former business partners.
Final Chapter in a Long Legal Battle
When Mironko’s case at the EACJ surfaced in 2022, it sparked outrage on social media, with many questioning his moral standing.
Critics condemned him for demanding payment for weapons that may have been used during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, which resulted in the deaths of over a million people.
The EACJ session in Kigali was part of the court’s rotational system. The entire panel was in Rwanda for its annual conference, making it convenient to hear the appeal locally instead of at the court’s headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
Mironko, once Rwanda’s first indigenous industrialist, built his legacy in the 1950s with a plastics factory named after him. Despite his immense wealth and vast land holdings, his repeated court battles have overshadowed his business achievements.
With the EACJ’s final ruling, his long legal battle against the Rwandan government has officially come to an end.
