Ninety Police officers are undergoing five-day training on combating and preventing corruption in the police force at the Rwanda National Police (RNP) headquarters in Gasabo District.

"We want to train our officers on fighting corruption and completely do away with it so that when they are dealing with the cases they do so from an informed position,” said Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Butera, who is in charge of community policing in RNP.

He added that whereas the rest of the world perceives the RNP as being among the most corruption-free forces in Africa, Rwandans themselves see the police differently because they are the ones from whom some officers get the bribes.

The acting Commissioner General of the Police Mary Gahonzire said that the training aims at among other things, raising awareness in the force so that they identify their role in combating and preventing corruption to win confidence of the population.

"This campaign is aimed at fighting corruption in all government institutions but we have started from us in the police force…we need to avoid anything in form of corruption  to be able to fight it on all level and have zero tolerance on corruption as it is the government policy,” said Gahonzire.

"This training is going to wash your hearts clean of any corruption tendencies, and will equip you fight it within the population because as the saying goes, you cannot give what you do not have,”said Internal Security Minister Musa Fazil Harerimana who also attended the conference.

The minister also suggested that the corruption campaign be taken to the lower levels in the police force such that they are reminded constantly of the dangers of the vice.

According to Gahonzire two hundred and fifty police officers have been dismissed in a period of two and a half years on corruption allegations "and the police is determined to do so until the force is completely corruption-free.”

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