A total of 28 Police students of the second intake of the Senior Command and Staff course graduated yesterday from the National Police College in Musanze District.

The officers were from Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Rwanda, the hosts.

The one-year course offers strategic leadership and Master’s programme in Peace Studies and Conflict Transformation offered in partnership with the Centre for Conflict Management of the University of Rwanda-College of Arts and Social Science.

It combines Police components, which include ‘operational staff work of police’ offered by Rwanda National Police, ‘strategic leadership and management,’ (level seven certificate), offered by the UK-based Bramshill Police College.

The Minister for Internal Security, Sheikh Musa Fazil Harerimana, while officiating at the graduation ceremony, said "protection of people and property is a major ingredient of security.”

"Security is a pre-requisite for development, thus, there cannot be any better investment than equipping those responsible with professional and academic knowledge and skills. This will benefit not only individual officers, their institutions and country, but also the African continent as a whole,” the minister said.

"I hope this course has offered the participants an opportunity  to improve on their knowledge and skills at strategic command level in line with the fight against emerging crimes as an effect of technological development and globalisation and also an occasion to share experiences and good practices to have common understanding on handling conflict issues,” he added.

He urged the graduands to maintain the bond they created among themselves since the beginning of the course and expand the acquired skills into a common doctrine for African Police services.   

Commissioner of Police, Christopher Bizimungu, the Commandant of National Police College, observed that contemporary policing environment is becoming increasingly challenging because of the prevalence of intrastate conflicts and the subsequent complexities of enforcing the law in post conflict societies, especially in eastern African region, but also because of the paradigm shift in crime trends, particularly the alarming rise in transnational crimes like human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, terrorism and cyber crimes.

"Being a senior police commander in such a setting requires that officers be equipped with necessary knowledge and skills in line with leadership and management at strategic level and deep understanding of conflicts so as to work towards sustainable peace and security for the populations we are assigned to protect,’’ CP Bizimungu said.

He lauded partners particularly the Centre for Conflict Management of the University of Rwanda and Bramshill College of Policing, for their support.