Prisons to sign MoU with EAC states

The Commissioner General of the National Prison Services, Mary Gahonzire, has said that Rwanda will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with other East African member states’ prison services as a move geared towards promoting cooperation. Speaking to The New Times, Gahonzire said that the national services have already drafted MoUs for all member states which will be implemented very soon. “Basically this aims at sharing best practices in Human Rights and production,” Gahonzire said. The MoUs are a result of a directive of cooperation among regional prisons by the East African Community Chiefs of Prisons and ministers in charge of EAC meeting held in Arusha early this year. So far, Uganda and Rwanda have signed the MoU. Gahonzire and her Ugandan counterpart, Dr Johnson Byabashaija, earlier in the week signed the cooperation document which introduced new areas of cooperation between the two institutions. Among the areas to be emphasized, Gahonzire sai are the need for technical cooperation, human resource development, education and training She said Uganda has a well established training school and their maize production yields are high, a thing that would be implemented here. Byabashaija said that the two countries shall continue to share expertise and skills through staff exchange.Gahonzire noted that despite not having an MoU with Kenya, the two countries have already started working together in various fields. Rwanda Prisons Services already has working relationships with South Africa and Zambia. “Zambia prison services have good things, especially in production and rehabilitation which we would like to borrow,” she said. Ends