Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Rwandan authorities of committing severe human rights violations, including torture, in the country’s detention facilities. The rights group condemned the lack of accountability for those responsible, highlighting the pervasive culture of abuse under President Paul Kagame’s rule.
The report, released on Tuesday, is based on interviews conducted between 2019 and 2024 with nearly 30 individuals, including former detainees, and draws from court documents and online testimonies. It details systematic human rights abuses in numerous detention centres across the country, identifying torture as a common practice. HRW noted that only one senior prison official, Innocent Kayumba, has faced consequences for such abuses.
HRW disclosed that it had contacted the Rwandan government in September regarding the report’s findings but had received no response before the report’s publication.
Former detainees interviewed about their experiences at Kwa Gacinya, an unofficial detention centre in Kigali controlled by the police, described a consistent pattern of mistreatment, including mock executions, beatings, and torture, with evidence dating back to at least 2011. Venant Abayisenga, an opposition member who was detained there in 2017, described it as a “place of fear” during a 2020 interview. He recounted hearing executions and being interrogated without legal representation. Abayisenga disappeared five months after his interview was released on YouTube.
At one point, he was threatened with execution: “At one point, they brought a gun and told me they would shoot me,” he recalled. “There are people who are killed at Kwa Gacinya, you hear the voice of the person being killed, and then you hear someone come in to clean up the room,” he added
HRW reviewed court documents for 25 individuals accused of security-related offences. Several claimed they were held incommunicado in “coffin-like” cells for up to six months.
The report also gathered testimonies from former detainees at Rubavu and Nyarugenge prisons. Nyarugenge was described by one ex-inmate as “hell,” where prisoners were beaten in tanks filled with filthy water. HRW asserted that Rwanda had consistently failed to investigate or act on credible allegations of torture made by detainees since at least 2017.
While some trials have occurred, HRW noted that several senior officials were acquitted despite what it called “damning evidence” against them. Innocent Kayumba, a former director of Rubavu and Nyarugenge prisons, was convicted of murdering an inmate and sentenced to 15 years, but HRW described this as only partial justice.
The report further stated that Rwanda routinely restricted investigations by international bodies, such as the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Rwanda has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with 637 prisoners per 100,000 people, according to the 2024 report by the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research.