Gasabo Intermediate Court and the handling of the breast removal case

Gasabo Intermediate Court in Kigali

Today is 11 March 2021 at 8 am.

I am standing in the parking yard near the gloriously waving national flag, looking at the majestic facility of Gasabo Intermediate Court at Rusororo as it shines serenely in the morning sunlight beams dispelling the mist.

It is two years now since I started coming here to cover the case of a woman seeking Rwf300 million ($300,000) compensation for her lost breast, mistakenly removed for cancer she did not have.

The case involves King Faisal Hospital and Dr Lynette Kyokunda whose diagnosis wrongly concluded that the woman had breast cancer and Rwanda Military Hospital depended on an eight-month-old medical report from King Faisal Hospital to remove the woman's breast without another medical examination.

This is my third time attending this case which has suffered postponements twelve times and the lawyers of both parties are complaining about the "unnecessary" case delay.

I ascend the white stairs into the court’s waiting areas, passing many frustrated looks in hopes of getting justice in this court. I proceed to closed courtrooms to identify where the case will be heard from.

As usual, the woman’s case comes first on the schedules written on pieces of paper on the metallic white doors although it has lingered in the courtrooms for the last two years.

I sit near the courtroom door waiting for the hearing time. Lawyers pass by me, their black gowns swinging in the cold air going from door to door checking for where their cases will be heard from.

A young woman and man in janitors' clothing come hastily, one carrying the CPU and another the monitor trying not to get entangled by the cables that sweep the ground.

They fugit on the door for about a quarter a minute before they enter the courtroom up to the bench and leave the computer there. The court clerk comes later to install the computer.

I don’t know whether the court doesn't have enough computers so they have to share the few available or the computers are not safe in the courtrooms so they have to keep them somewhere and return them every morning.

Along with about seven people, many of whom are lawyers, sit in the courtroom waiting as they joke about past experiences in their profession.

Whenever I’m in a courtroom, I take time to read what is written on the backrests of benches and walls.

If you like reading comments under a news article, you should be able to know why I’m interested in reading what the audience writes or scratch on the furniture or wall in a Rwandan courtroom.

In most village courts I’ve been to, I've seen psalmic thanks such as “Thank you Lord”, “My enemies have been defeated” and other words of contentment written or scratched everywhere in response to the justice delivered in the court.

Here in Kigali courtrooms, you find condemnation and blasphemy, especially against the country and authorities or the judges in desperate and angry tones of the writers who exhibit their defeated protest of a court's decision.

On the wall skirting, I see a statement: “F**k Rwanda, it is so absurd”. The writer continues to condemn some individuals: "you'll be held accountable”. Similar statements are all over as in other courtrooms.

I have always wondered why court authorities don’t have the courtrooms painted and furniture vanished regularly to erase such statements.

The entering judge interrupts my reading of the writings on the wall. We all rise as she sweeps with honour through the audience to the bench with the court clerk.

I don’t know why there is no introduction of the judges in the Rwanda courtrooms to make it more formal with a greater sense of respect.

In some countries, I have known in East Africa, a bailiff enters first and says: “All rise” and you all stand up and the bailiff adds “This court is in session” then the judges come into the bench and order the audience to “be seated”.

The court session

We’re over a dozen sparsely seated on the church-like crimson benches unlike sometimes when hearings are held in one of the small offices of this courthouse and attendants have to listen from near the door in small corridors.

I have seen it twice here and at one time I was intercepted by a court clerk who barred me from entering because the room was already full.

Since this case started in 2019, it has been handled by two different judges.

It beats my logic to see this case involving two leading referral hospitals, one of the most prominent medics in East Africa and with a compensation claim of up to Rwf300 million handled by a single judge bench.

The first judge postponed it several times until his scheduled transfer came and he left it on the docket.

This second judge one day left us in the courtroom and went to meet the court’s president in his office, spent some good minutes there and came back with a decision to punish the lawyer for delaying the case.

It was my first time seeing a judge in their capacity leaving the courtroom to consult others outside the courtroom and come back with a decision. I think she violated her independence in the case.

Today, we expected a ruling on the objection submitted by the King Faisal Hospital lawyer but instead, the judge takes time to read from her computer as she asks the lawyer some questions about the experts’ report that had been answered in the previous session.

I get bored and return to the commentary writings that dirty-marked the white wall skirting and the bench backrests until the lawyer raises his voice in contention of the “interrogation” from the judge:

“Your honour, I came here to contend with my fellow lawyers, not this honourable court. Let the lawyers contend with me on the matter” the lawyer said.

“We’re all not medical professionals” another lawyer intervenes. “The experts’ report must be first decided on by this honourable court. It's primary to know if the report is admissible or not due to the objection submitted by one of us"

The judge gives a deaf hear after a long argument on it, starts asking the lawyer of the victim:

“Of the two, King Faisal Hospital and Kanombe (Rwanda) Military Hospital, who do you think should incur the compensation and at what percentage if they are to share?” the judge asks.

I lean back and look at the honourable judge in disbelief at her statement which sounds like a deliberation that the victim has got the compensation before the court’s decision.

I don’t think the lawyer is the right person to ask about the responsibility of each hospital in the case, I think it’s supposed to be the medical experts to tell the court according to the rules and ethics in the field.

The judge turns to the lawyers of all parties about their position on the experts’ report who also refer the judge to the arguments in the previous session, stressing that it’s important for the court to decide on King Faisal Hospital’s objection to the experts’ report.

The hearing goes on in obscurity for five hours until the judge announces that the case would be decided on 9th April 2020.