The Kicukiro Primary Court on Wednesday, November 6, sentenced Miss Rwanda 2022, Divine Nshuti Muheto, in a drunk driving case to a suspended three-month prison sentence. The sentence is suspended for one year. She was also fined Rwf190,000.
A suspended sentence is one ordered by a court to be postponed in favor of giving the offender some time to fully undertake a probationary period following conviction for a crime. In this system, a criminal found guilty is not sentenced to prison, but he may be given a sentence in the future for the same crime if he commits another one within a stipulated period.
In the considered opinion of the presiding judge, Muheto was found guilty of driving under the influence of liquor and driving without a license but was acquitted of failing to stop after the accident. The court ordered her immediate release after the verdict. The court considered that although the two charges were previously accepted by Muheto herself, the accusation against her of fleeing the scene was not sustained by evidence.
It was during the October 31 hearing that the prosecution requested a one-year, eight-month prison sentence against Muheto.
She was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, damaging public property, and fleeing the scene of an accident she caused on the evening of October 24 while driving from a bar in Kicukiro District, Kigali, to her house in Kimironko.
During her arraignment, the prosecutor said Muheto was driving under the influence of alcohol when she crashed into an electricity pole and a palm tree.
The police afterwards conducted an alcohol test, which turned out that her blood alcohol level was high.
Her driving licence was also put in question as the prosecutor pointed out that she had no license to drive. Muheto pleaded guilty to drunk-driving and causing damage to public infrastructure, while denying failing to stop after the accident.
Her lawyers argued that she should be fined and not incarcerated. They cited her work for national causes, particularly her projects on stunting prevention. Her lawyers added that she had expressed remorse and pleaded for mercy.
They added that she was accepted into the African Leadership University- ALU, and stressed how important it will be to allow her to continue her studies.
