Rwanda National Police

Residents of Kirehe District have been urged to highly embrace community policing initiatives as the best method to do away with the common tendencies related to trafficking and abuse of drugs in the area.

The call was made on January 28 by the District Community Liaison Officer (DCLO) of Kirehe, Inspector of Police (IP) Gahigi Harerimana during a meeting with over 200 residents of Rusamaza, Karenge and Janika villages of Nyabikokora Cell in Kirehe Sector.

“If we are to address challenges affecting people’s safety and security effectively, we need to create a closer working relationship where each of you feels and understands that they have an obligation in ensuring and contributing to security,” said IP Harerimana.

He added that; “If you do that, there is no way we would jointly fail to wipe out all sorts of crimes in our societies.”

He particularly pointed out drug abuse as one of the vices that needs to be strongly fought saying that effects of drug abuse aren’t limited to the consumer only but also to the general public.

“It has been proven that most of the crimes are committed by people who are under influence of narcotic substances this is why, if we are to address concerns of criminality, we need to start from the bottom,” said IP Harerimana.

“Narcotic drugs are a threat to community security. Some people especially the youth addicts, become criminals and they end up becoming the victims which we should all fight,” he told residents.

Kirehe is said to be one of the major transit routes for narcotic drugs especially cannabis.

He urged them to always utilize the police toll-free communication services like 112 and 3512 to report any one suspected to be involved in either consumption or trafficking of illicit substances, and other unlawful acts.

IP Harerimana went on to give a clear example linking drug abuse with gender based violence, saying, “Most of the families that we reunite have had a history of drug abuse from one of the spouses. In situations where the man is consuming drugs he will sometimes assault his wife or children.”

He also requested them to always report anything suspicious to the police in the quickest time possible as means to prevent crimes instead of dealing with the consequences.

Residents also pledged to work closely with the police at all times and wipe our criminality in their community.