RWANDA: A beauty queen in Rwanda has been arrested for drink-driving and driving without a licence.
Police said Divine Muheto, who won the most recent Miss Rwanda beauty pageant, had damaged “infrastructure” and then fled the scene. The statement does not say whether anybody was hurt in the incident.
It is not the first time the 21-year-old has driven under the influence of alcohol, police in the East African country added.
Ms Muheto has not publicly reacted to the arrest. It was announced by the police on Tuesday, after days of speculation that she had been detained over a collision.
A court in capital city Kigali will begin hearing Ms Muheto’s case on Thursday, a prosecution spokesperson told local media.
Ms Muheto gained fame in Rwanda after she won the national beauty contest in 2022.
The competition has not been held since – it was suspended by the government after sexual misconduct allegations were made against the organisers.
Drink-driving carries a fine of 150,000 Rwandan francs ($110; £85) and five days in police custody.
Thousands of people have been arrested for this crime in recent years as police have begun to enforce the law.
In 2022, a member of parliament apologised and resigned for drink-driving.
According to the government, the recent strict enforcement of traffic laws has significantly reduced the number of fatal road accidents in Rwanda.
SOUTH AFRICA TO STRIP BEAUTY QUEEN of ID DOCUMENTS.
Beauty queen Chidimma Adetshina, who has been at the centre of a fierce nationality row, is to be stripped of her South African identity and travel documents.
The Department of Home Affairs began investigating her case after she became a finalist in the Miss South Africa pageant, but faced criticism as people questioned her eligibility to compete because her mother has Mozambican roots and her father is Nigerian.
She withdrew from the competition in August after the department announced that her mother might have committed “identity theft” to become a South African national.
Ms Adetshina, a law student, went on to win Miss Universe Nigeria after she was invited to participate by the organisers.
The Department of Home Affairs made the announcement about the withdrawal of her ID papers to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
Tommy Makhode, the top civil servant at the department, said Ms Adetshina’s mother would also have her documents cancelled as they had both failed to meet Monday’s deadline to provide reasons why they should be eligible to keep them.
