New police chief vows to crack down on graft

KIGALI - The newly appointed Commissioner General of Police, Brig. Gen Emmanuel Gasana has said that he will not accommodate any corrupt officer in the force. Gasana made the declaration in an interview with Sunday Times a day after his appointment. “Let me make this categorically clear, that I will come out clear with my colleagues to enable an environment of corrupt-free servicemen,” said Gasana. He added that his well-planned fight against corruption within the police is in line with the government policies. “It is also in line with the Head of State’s intent, and it is within our terms of reference,” noted Gasana. His statement follows a recent Ombudsman report in which the Police was ranked among the most corrupt institutions. “We will make sure that those corruption tendencies are stopped. We shall seek cooperation with other agencies to make sure that we are jointly addressing this issue.” Gasana pointed out that; He said that some of the initiatives he will introduce in the police force include equipping policemen with state-of-the-art equipment and skills that would make them outshine the entire continent. “This is going to be a two-way approach; much as we may want to beef up the police the way we want to, we still need to modernize the force,” he said. “If there is a way of modernizing the police better, like having sophisticated machines and equipment, enabling environment of information gathering, we are thinking about having some of these special professional skills and establishing many communication centres.” Prior to his appointment as new police chief, Brig. Gen Emmanuel Gasana was the acting head of logistics in the Rwanda Defence Forces. Ends