Man 25-year-old arrested for pretending to be a doctor, police say

Police in Gakenke District have arrested a 25-year old man who was masquerading as medical doctor to solicit money from unsuspecting residents under the pretext that they would get medical care from foreign medical doctors.

At the time of his arrest on June 6, the suspect, who was found with a forged national identity card bearing a name of ‘Nkurunziza,’ had already conned two residents of Rwf60, 000.

“On Monday, we received information from residents about a certain man calling himself Dr. Frank Mugisha from Kanombe Military Hospital and introducing a certain medical services that the hospital in partnership with doctors from abroad would be extending to the residents of Gakenke, but charging money from them as a prerequisite,” Inspector of Police (IP) Innocent Gasasira, Northern Region Police spokesperson, said.

“He was telling residents that there is a team of expert doctors from USA who will be coming in the country to treat non-communicable diseases and asked them to pay Rwf30, 000 per head for registration so that they could benefit from the service,” he added.

IP Gasasira said investigations are still underway to establish the real identity of the suspect and to find out if there are other people that have fallen victims.

“People should be wary of anyone coming to them offering such services. Normally such services are provided from known places and by known people, not on the streets,” said IP Gasasira.

“This is a criminal act of obtaining the property of another person by fraud and punishable under article 318 of the penal code.”

It stipulates that “any person who, intentionally obtains a property belonging to another person fraudulently or by using false names or qualities, to give rise to hope or fear of harm and obtains a part or whole of a fortune shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of three to five years and a fine of between Rwf3 million and Rwf5 million.”