Usefulness of Forensic Services in Promoting Livelihoods amongst Rwanda Forensic Institute Visitors, Kigali Rwanda

Globally, forensic services have become integral in promoting justice, public safety, and community livelihoods. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where Rwanda, the utilization of these services remains insufficient and undocumented due to, many challenges such as, socio-cultural beliefs, limited awareness, and accessibility challenges. The Rwanda Forensic Institute (RFI) has emerged as the cradle institution providing quality specialized forensic expertise; however, The Main Forensic Services Utilized to Promote Livelihood among Population Health Visiting the Rwanda Forensic Institute remains insufficient and undocumented. Thus timely need to determine, the types of forensic services utilized and lastly audit the knowledge, attitude, and practices utilized by the institution to promote livelihoods among the population health visiting RFI. The study was descriptive cross-sectional and triangulation designs, target population was 204 population health seeking forensic services, sampling technique was census, purposive and discussion of themes to saturation among population health visiting for forensic services, data were collected by semi-structured questionnaires, Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) guides. Data was managed using SPSS version 27 software and analyzed by cross-tabulation of descriptive and inferential statistics, and visualized using a figure. The results on gender participation, indicated that 58% (118) of forensic service users were female. The majority age cohort’s utilization of forensic services 19 to 35 years with 30% (61) service utilization and least age cohort was above 60 years with 21% (25). The main types of forensic services utilized by respondents only in DNA testing, utilization is equivalent to (31.86%) 65, autopsy /post-mortem examinations (26.47%) 54. Results on forensic health education , opined that only14 % ( 29) population health , had quality health information pertaining forensic services, thus timely need for more strong community participation in forensic services, to advocate for more health education to promote the utilization of forensic services for timely forensic justice to victims and suspects in the society.