At 7 p.m. on a Thursday, the electricity goes off. The power cut has become routine since August, and residents of Gatsibo and Nyagatare districts have adapted to the two-hour schedule, with electricity restored at 9 p.m.
At Rwagitima trading centre, darkness blankets the roadside. A few homes stand out, lit by solar power, while some residents use their phone torches to find their way.
The scheduled blackout from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. forces shops to close and residents to retreat indoors, leaving the trading centre largely deserted.
In the darkness, uniformed village night patrol teams walk in columns through the centre. A few cars pass along the highway.
Suddenly, a convoy of motorcycles without number plates speeds past, carrying bags. The riders turn onto a dusty road and disappear into the neighbourhood. They are delivering sachet alcohol to a customer, a routine residents say has become common.
A Taarifa investigative reporter approaches sector night guards to ask about the smugglers. The guards acknowledge that they know about the motorcycle convoys but say they do not know where the alcohol is taken.
The supply of sachet alcohol has grown so much that it has created a network of vendors who can deliver to customers at short notice.
Before the government banned locally produced spirit drinks, sachet alcohol was scarce. A sachet that once cost Rwf 500 now sells at three for Rwf 1,000.
Empty sachets litter the area, and day-school students and pupils can easily access the alcohol.
Kazungu Derrick, whose name has been changed, is a distributor who was recently caught carrying a 150-kilogram bag of sachets. Sector guards, known as irondo, told him to choose between surrendering the bag and being taken into sector custody. Kazungu left the bag behind and went home. He lost the alcohol but avoided arrest.
“They take seized sachets and sell them to bar owners at very low prices,” Kazungu told the Taarifa investigative team, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Conversations with village authorities suggest that some also consume sachet alcohol and locally brewed banana wine. Deliveries of adulterated banana wine are also made at night, and sellers use a deceptive method to serve it.
A customer enters a bar and orders an authorised brand such as Mutzig, Primus or Skol. The seller then pours the wine into a beer bottle and hands it to the customer.
From outside, customers appear to be drinking beer. But when they become drunk, some openly admit that they are drinking banned alcohol.
Smuggling from Burundi
The Taarifa investigative team travelled to Huye to examine how residents are responding to the ban on locally produced spirit drinks.
Burundi closed its border with Rwanda in 2015, halting cross-border movement. Smuggling, however, has reportedly risen intermittently. In Rwandan districts along the border, residents say cheap alcoholic drinks from Burundi are widely available.
The drinks are described as crude, and some consumers claim they are mixed with substances such as marijuana, Viagra and other herbs to produce different effects.
Last month, the Ugandan government banned a controversial alcoholic product imported from Burundi after it was found to contain Viagra additives.
In Berwa village, Gitwa cell, Tumba sector, Huye, the Taarifa team visited a shop and ordered a drink.
A bottle of Susuruka, which costs Rwf 700, can cause intoxication, residents say. It is smuggled from Burundi through Gisagara and Nyaruguru districts, which border the country.
“Alcoholic products are smuggled from Burundi at night. They are affordable,” Mukansabimana Solange told Taarifa. She said residents had turned to them as a replacement for the locally produced drinks that were recently banned.
Facing a new challenge
In the first week of September, the executive of Ndatemwa cell summoned village leaders to a meeting at a church compound.
He told them he had received information that some leaders were undermining government efforts to fight illicit alcohol. He warned them against shielding those involved or distributing seized sachets instead of helping to apprehend the perpetrators.
The Rwanda National Police is also using social media to warn against cross-border alcohol smuggling.
ACP Boniface Rutikanga warned that people involved in distributing banned alcohol would be arrested and prosecuted. He said some people had recently been apprehended while attempting to distil local gin in Gikomero, Rusororo, in Gasabo District.
“Some people hide banned alcoholic products and continue to sell them. Those involved only care about money and do not consider people’s health and lives,” ACP Rutikanga said on the national broadcaster.
Taarifa Investigative Desk
