About 100 opinion leaders from Kayinzi and Karama sectors of Kamonyi District held a security meeting last week 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 Police and opinion leaders in crime prevention.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, the coordinator of opinion leaders in Kamonyi District, Damien Nkurikiyinka said, "Throughout 2015, our partnership with the Police was characterised by instant information sharing which helped in crime prevention.”

"We highly thank the Police for its continued outreach programmes whereby citizens are sensitised against crimes and also equipped with knowledge about human rights. In our district, we witnessed many families that had been wrecked by wrangles being reunited with the help of Police,” said Nkurikiyinka.

The meeting was also characterised 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 attested that, they have not only reconciled but are now involved in reconciling and reuniting other families that have domestic conflicts.

District Police Commander Superintendent of Police Donath Kinani reminded opinion leaders that Police embarked 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 that through community policing, we can prevent many crimes and this has been proven by the fact that Rwanda is continually ranked among the most secure countries in the world,” said SP Kinani.

He went on to thank opinion leaders for their partnership and the trust they have in the police saying that it has facilitated timely reporting of crimes.

"It has been proven that a secure society develops faster than the one that has a high rate of criminality.

If we are to maintain the rate of our development, we need to ensure collective public safety,” he said.

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