ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 is about Rwandan criminal law. It first summarizes the historical development of Rwandan criminal law from pre-colonial to present-day Rwanda. It discusses some key elements of criminal law under traditional Rwandan law, colonial law, and the very first criminal code of independent Rwanda. It also presents the dilemma of the 2012 penal code that sought to incorporate all scattered Rwandan criminal law provisions under one umbrella and how this approach failed, leading to the adoption in 2018 of a new law on offenses and penalties. The main part of this chapter studies in details the 2018 new criminal law. It covers general provisions applicable to all offenses and penalties as well as detailed offenses and their respective penalties. Wherever necessary, the chapter includes the Supreme Court’s rulings that either tried to challenge the constitutionality or tried to explain some provisions of this law.
