World over, the festive season is a period of merriment. Friends and family get together to not only celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ for the Christians, but also rejoice over ending the year in good health while ushering in the new one.

The festivities start with Christmas Day which will be celebrated today.

Ahead of the celebrations, police and City of Kigali officials yesterday made a fresh call to the public to enjoy responsibly to ensure the entire festive season is incident-free stressing that laws would remain in force and any one who engages in criminality will be brought to book.

The festive season will be marked with various public events such as big concerts at national level and smaller ones organised by different families in neighborhoods some going on until the wee hours.

According to Assistant Commissioner of Police Theos Badege, the police spokesperson, they have everything necessary in place to ensure Rwandans enjoy as they celebrate the festive season, but urged vigilance and respect of public order to ensure everyone enjoy their rights.

"All is set to ensure that Rwandans and the public in general are safe and enjoy the festive season. We promise them security but we urge them to enjoy responsibly. Crimes remain crimes and we are vigilant and ready to hold anyone that indulge in criminality, road users should know that over speeding, speaking on the phone and driving while drunk are punishable by law,” he said, saying that all these can lead to loss of life.

"The public should also ensure that there is no noise pollution whenever there are public events, because this encroaches on the rights of other people. Everyone should play a role; policing is more effective where there is partnership so we expect anyone that suspects criminality to report,” he said.

Yesterday when this paper visited some places around the city of Kigali, people were busy preparing venues where events will take place.

For instance, inside Petit Stade in Remera, people were busy mounting music equipment among others.

This is the venue where rapper Emery Gatsinzi, popularly known as Riderman, is expected to unveil his latest album in a concert dubbed "Uburyohe” on Christmas Day as well as his mix-tape ‘Filime’

"All is set to have a good event and apart from the security that is always granted by police, we have people internally who will maintain security to make sure everything is flawless, we want people to enjoy and we are hoping it will be safer and more secure,” said Riderman in an interview with The New Times.

Throughout the festive season, several parties are also expected to take place at the Kigali Conferences and Exhibition Village (former Camp Kigali) among others across the city and beyond.

Watch your property

According to Bruno Rangira, City of Kigali Spokesperson, while the festive season is a period to enjoy and celebrate the achievements with families, it is also time where cases of robbery tend to increase and the public should ensure their properties are safe.

"We encourage the public to enjoy and celebrate achievements with families and pledge to achieve more in the next years, however, we ask them to be vigilant and ensure that their property is safe, some tend to enjoy, go to concerts and prayers and leave their homes unattended which may encourage theft ,” he added

Rangira said that together with the police, the City of Kigali has been facilitating event organisers and was optimistic there will be no incidents if the public also play their part particularly by keeping public order as well as ensuring discipline on the road to avoid accidents.

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