The Rwanda National Police as an institution has metamorphosed from a fragile entity that it was 14 years ago, to a professional and vibrant Police Force that it is today. The New Times’ THOMAS KAGERA talked to the IGP EMMANUEL K. GASANA on how this institution has been able to spell out a total paradigm shift into new strength of service.

Background

Following the 1994 liberation, the Government of Rwanda went back on the drawing board to rebuild and reshape public structures; including security institutions that would spearhead the transformation of the country. Rwanda was to, later, use the Police success story for the good of other countries, employing the same techniques that the international community, which had the ability but lacked the will, should have used to prevent or rather stop the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Previous security agencies were built on the foundation of segregation, ethnicity, lacked discipline and professionalism. The post-colonial regimes used the police as a tool to suppress their subjects rather than protecting them.