WESTERN PROVINCE RUBAVU — The Mayor Céléstin Twagirayezu has started touring the district calling on residents to embrace Community Policing. Addressing residents of Kanama Sector recently, one of the 12 sectors of Rubavu district, the Mayor, flanked by officials in charge of welfare, hailed the Community Policing (CP) committees for their contribution in ensuring security in the area. He attributed the improved security situation to improved cooperation between the police and the CP committees. Kanama sector is one of the most populated sectors in Rubavu with over 24,464 residents. “Community policing is a philosophy that promotes and supports organisational strategies to address the causes of crime and social disorder. This is done through problem solving tactics and partnerships,” Twagirayezu said. “The policy has so far yielded some good results in most sectors. I therefore urge you to support the policy and do every thing possible to share crime information with the police no matter who is involved,” he said. Twagirayezu said that security maintenance should be everybody’s responsibility. “Kanama is one of the sectors in Rubavu district with the most fertile soils. You should therefore make use of that opportunity through fighting crimes thus concentrating on developmental issues and agricultural development,” he advised. Stanislaus Nkundiyaremye, the sector coordinator said that land disputes contributed to most of the crimes in Kanama. “Security has greatly improved in the sector though we still have challenges emanating from land disputes. I also call upon the district authority to help us in accessing clean water because most parts of the sector still lack access to clean water,” Nkundiyaremye said. Nkundiyaremye said the sector also lacks good roads which has hindered business and transportation of food products to outside markets. In the meantime, the Police official, Superintendent Helmen Murayire called upon residents to always report security threats to authorities in order to maintain the prevailing security situation in the Sector. According to Murayire, there have been cases where some people have been convinced to sell off their belongings and illegally cross the borders. He warned that any one netted crossing the border without proper travel documents would be punished. Ends
