Modern forensic lab to be established

KIGALI - Rwanda National Police (RNP) has announced plans to establish an ultra-modern forensic laboratory within the next two years, to further ease the activities of the justice sector by providing more scientific evidence needed for crime investigations. Assistant Commissioner of Police, Christophe Bizimungu, the Commissioner for Criminal Investigation Department (CID) disclosed this, yesterday, in a media briefing. The briefing aimed at creating awareness of the forensic services at the national police which he said helps preserve and protect crime scenes. “We have a timeframe of two years to have established this modern forensic laboratory which will provide various forensic disciplines,” Bizimungu said. The laboratory, to be established at the Metropolitan Police Building (MPB), formerly Kabuga building would also provide forensic services to other countries. “The contractors are carrying out the feasibility study. We will determine the total cost of the facility after the completion of the study, but what we can say is that it will be costly,” he added. Once complete, the scheduled multi-million dollar laboratory will offer forensic tests like DNA, toxicology and ballistics. Toxicology is a test done on a person who, for instance, was poisoned while ballistics are tests that involve arms and explosives. Currently, these costly tests are carried out abroad. The current forensic laboratory carries out limited tests which include fingerprints and documentary analysis. Documentary analysis refers to the act of identifying counterfeit products. “The current forensic laboratory produces quality tests but we want to go further and carry out more forensic disciplines locally,” he explained. He appealed to the public not to tamper or contaminate crime scenes to help investigators to easily identify criminals. Supt. Morris Muligo, the Director of Kigali Forensic laboratory noted that public awareness on protecting crime scenes will help Scene of Crime Officers (SOCO) acquire more credible evidence. Ends