Residents of Nyanza District will now be required to have an ownership license to be able to sell their cattle, a district security meeting has resolved. This is one of the recommendations of the district security meeting that was convened on Monday and brought together Police, other security organs, and district local leaders. According to the District Police Commander Superintendent of Police Athanase Ruganintwari, the move was adopted as one of the effective measures to fight cattle rustling in Nyanza, and regulate the selling, buying and transportation of cattle. Statistics indicate that since January this year, about 40 cows have been stolen in the district and so far 15 have been recovered and returned to the rightful owners. . “For anyone to sell their cow, they will be required to secure a document from the village chief also signed by the cell executive secretary proving that the cow actually belongs to you. The same document will have specific description of the cow,” Supt. Ruganintwari said, as he explained resolutions of the security meeting. He went on to say that upon selling the cow, both the owner (seller) and the buyer will sign on the licensed document indicating details of the transaction – cost – and the buyer will have to take the document with him or her and will be presented when required. “This means that, if you are found transporting a cow without that document, it will be considered stolen. We also agreed to sensitise cattle keepers to tag their cattle,” he said. This decision comes as an implementation of the recent provincial security meeting which tasked districts to come up with the most appropriate way of issuing and using the license to curb cattle theft. The security meeting also discussed the state of drug abuse in the district and recommended increased operations, awareness and to tighten community policing initiatives like Irondo – community night patrols – to further deal and eliminate the vice. Common psychotropic substances in Nyanza include cannabis, the banned crude gin commonly known as Kanyanga and locally made brew called muriture, made out of water, sugarcane residues, tea leaves and burnt bricks. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
