Police vow to crack down on corruption

Corruption is indeed a fact within the police force but all necessary measures are being made to uproot it, Eric Kayiranga, the Police Spokesperson has said. He was reacting to a recent report by a Senate Foreign Affairs Committee that dug deep into the malpractices that negatively impact service delivery and also provide loopholes that may encourage corruption within the Traffic Police Unit. Kayiranga told The New Times yesterday that institutionally, corruption is a vice that the Police cannot tolerate. “We accept the fact that there is corruption within the police personnel but these are individual cases and through investigation, we have managed to uproot most of them,” he said Kayiranga pointed out that in 2006, 120 police personnel were fired in relation to corruption. Another 314 were dismissed in 2007 followed by 141 last year and 73 this year. This, according to Kayiranga, is testimony that the number is dwindling with time. He told The New Times that after dismissal, the culprits are usually followed up by courts of law. “The National Police is one of the key players in the fight against corruption. We are currently training our personnel who will be specialising in investigating this vice,” he said As part of the process to uproot it, Kayiranga said that the police admnistartion is looking into how to improve the livelihood of their personnel to cut down on temptations. Asked for clarification about the billions that are made from traffic penalties, Kayiranga said that the police enforces the law that has already been put in place. The committee says in the report that in 2008 alone, the Traffic Police Unit made slightly over Rwf 1.3bn from traffic offenses and services it offers. In the first half of this year, the department had made approximately Rwf 814m. “We do not penalize people to make money. Our motive is to protect road users and their property. The penalties are determined by other authorities and the traffic police are just enforcers,” he said Kayiranga told The New Times that currently, the police authorities are working on plans to establish a driving license examination center that will involve different stakeholders. The police is also in the process of establishing online registration facility for driving licenses. Ends