Police defy Kabayija’s New Year curfew order

* Governor and Police contradict each other on Province’s security Police and local authorities in the Eastern Province defied a directive issued by the Governor, Dr Ephraim Kabayija, ordering all residents to remain indoors on New Year’s Eve. According to local authorities, the Governor adopted the resolution by himself during a security meeting ordering all bars and shops to be closed by 7:00 p.m on New Year’s Eve because of security concerns. Speaking to The New Times, Supt Jean Pierre Kajeguhakwa, the acting Regional Police Commander in the Eastern Province, said that there was no cause for concern because the police and other security organs were in full control of the situation. ” I found local authorities telling residents to close bars and shops saying they were executing the governor’s directive… I did not agree with this and I ordered them to reopen bars for people to enjoy their freedom,” said Kajeguhakwa adding that he believed there was no cause for fear. When contacted, the Minister of Local Government, Protais Musoni, said that the order did not conform to local government norms unless if the security meeting had made prior assessment of the security situation. Neither Musoni nor the Minister of Internal Security agreed to have designed the decree in question when contacted. “Our ministry did not give any order, our role is to implement what local government tells us to do,” said Fazil Harerimana, the Internal Security Minister, under whose mandate the National Police falls. “Please get my words correctly, security in the province is stable, that is why I did not agree with others to implement that order, I was not in the security meeting otherwise I would have opposed the order in the meeting,” Kajeguhakwa said. Efforts to contact Governor Kabayija were futile by press time as he persistently could not pick-up his mobile phone. Ends