English
Kinyarwanda
About 100 opinion leaders from Kayinzi and Karama Sectors of Kamonyi District held a meeting on security on January 7 in which they hailed the existing partnership between Rwanda National Police and communities in ensuring public safety.
The meeting was held to review the partnership between the police and opinion leaders in crime prevention.
Speaking on behalf his colleagues, the coordinator of opinion leaders in Kamonyi District, Damien Nkurikiyinka said; “throughout 2015, our partnership with the police was characterized by instant information sharing which helped very much in crime prevention within our localities.”
“We highly thank the police for its continued outreach programmes where citizens are sensitized against some crimes and also equipped with knowledge about their rights and the rights of children. In our district, we witnessed many families that had been wrecked by wrangles being reunited by the police,” said Nkurikiyinka.
The meeting was also characterized by testimonies from couples that were reconciled by police last year and currently living in harmony.
One of them is Francois Munyemana and his wife Consolee Nyirantagorama.
In their testimony, Munyemana and Nyirantagorama narrated that today, they have not only reconciled but are now involved in reconciling and reuniting other families embroiled in domestic conflicts.
Addressing opinion leaders, the District Police Commander, Superintendent of Police (SP) Donath Kinani reminded them that Police embarks on community policing as means of reaching out to as many people as possible and empowering them to take the lead in ensuring safety and security in their localities.
“Since we can’t be in all places at the same time, we believe through community policing we can prevent many crimes and this has been proven by the way Rwanda is ranked among the most secure countries in the world” said SP Kinani.
He also went on to thank opinion leaders for their partnership and the trust they have in the police saying that this has facilitated the timely reporting of crimes.
“It has been proven that a secure society develop faster than the one that faced with high rates of criminality, if we are to maintain the rate of our development we need to ensure public safety and we do that collectively,” he said.
The meeting was also attended by the Executive Secretary of Kayenzi sector, Emmanuel Mbonigaba who thanked both the police and opinion leaders for their partnership saying that such initiatives have made a big impact in terms of national security.
