Rwanda National Police

A team of students from the college of arts and social sciences (UR-CASS), school of law, yesterday made a study tour to Rwanda National Police(RNP).

The students according to Dr. Denis  Bikesha, the dean of  school were at the police headquarters as part of the routine academic requirement to study and understand, "policing the post-genocide society".

The students were joined by their colleagues from eight countries across the globe on the study excursion.

Speaking to the student delegation, Commissioner of Police (CP) Bruce Munyambo, the commissioner for community policing, narrated the policing journey after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, challenges faced and strategies set-up to overcome them.

He explained that it took a lot of meticulous planning, “dedication, commitment, hard work and resilience” to establish the policing function as it is known today.

He said in July 1994, that soon after the liberation struggle there was intense luck of public trust in the security forces, which had themselves been involved in the killings, “pending threats of the genocidal forces, and weak justice apparatuses in general”.

“There was a great deal to do, the challenges were enormous. Hundreds of thousands of suspects alleged to have participated in the genocide had to be arrested thereby overwhelming the detention facilities then” he said.

He narrated that government embarked on building the capacities and structures of the law enforcement organs and amalgamated the once fragmented policing function which was held by the gendarmerie nationale under the Ministry of Defense, police communale affiliated to Internal security and Judicial Police under the Justice Ministry.

“To get people out of this mindset required serious mobilization and community-oriented policing that usually entailed tasking key members of the community to jointly work with law enforcers to prevent crimes,” he said.

He said, the RNP is now a professional and modern police force with demonstrated ability to export ‘security’ to troubled communities through peacekeeping missions.

Students expressed gratitude to RNP for the eye-opening policing experience of the post-genocide Rwandan society.