Rwanda, Uganda police chiefs meet over cross-border crime

The Inspector General of Uganda Police Force, Gen. Kale Kayihura, has said that globalisation and technological advancement have made it hard for security agencies to remain in reactive policing or working in isolation. IGP Kayihura made the remarks yesterday during a bilateral meeting between Rwanda and Uganda police forces held at the Rwanda National Police (RNP) General Headquarters in Kacyiru, Kigali. He was leading a delegation on a mission to benchmark on RNP’s experience on road safety and traffic control. At RNP, the delegation was received by the Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel K. Gasana. The meeting was also attended by the Deputy IGP in charge of Operations, Dan Munyuza, commissioners and senior police officers from the two institutions. “There is a lot of work to do to jointly confront the threats we all face, we need to continue learning and helping each other; when there’s insecurity in Uganda, Rwanda will in some way be affected as well and this necessitates us to respond holistically as a team,” Gen. Kayihura said. Rwanda and Uganda Police institutions enjoy cross- border cooperation entailed in a memorandum of understanding signed between the two forces under which the committed to jointly develop their capabilities through training, and sharing of experiences and best practices, operations within respective common borders, combating human trafficking and the influx of illegal cross-border and capacity building in other varied policing domains. Gen. Kayihura applauded Rwanda’s leadership for transforming its police institution calling it an “inspirational story.” “It’s amazing what you have achieved in a very short time and this is a testimony to the great leadership of this country,” he said. The delegation was given a presentation on traffic control and future projections, among others. The future projections include the ‘Automated Drivers’ Testing Centre’ slated to be operational in the near future, body-worm cameras for road safety evidence-based investigations, and Integrated Intelligent Traffic Management System. IGP Gasana commended the existing cooperation between the two police forces, especially in terms of sharing security issues and experience. “The existing cooperation has helped to lay strategies to find a common way of responding to cross-border and transnational organised crimes,” IGP Gasana said. Earlier on, another bench- marking was made by Uganda’s Police Chief and his delegation at Rwanda Utility Regulatory Agency (RURA), where he toured the international telecom gateway verification centre, which verifies the amount of communication that enters Rwanda in real time. The system helps to check and verify the declarations of mobile telecom operators. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Rwanda, Uganda police chiefs meet over cross-border crime