Editor,

RE: "German envoy hails Rwanda National Police” (The New Times, September 15).

For Rwanda National Police to become such a professional and a leading force continentally, a lot had to be invested.

Just an insight in the journey of our force being where it is today; before 1994, Rwanda had several para-military and civil defence forces entrusted to keep law and order. These included Gendarmerie Nationale under the Ministry of Defence, the Communal Police under the Ministry of Interior and the Judicial Police Inspectors under the Ministry of Justice.

In the year 2000, the government thought it wise to have an organised, well coordinated and professional police force that would effectively deal with security challenges that were relatively high at the time.

This led to the merger of the three institutions in June 2000, forming the Rwanda National Police (RNP) under Law No 09/2000 of June 16, 2000, which determines the powers, responsibilities, organisation and functioning of the institution.

Because of its strong partners, including the general public, RNP is now a measure of professionalism. The last fifteen years of the force’s existence have been a milestone in promoting and sustaining safety, security and peace, not only in Rwanda but also across borders in peacekeeping activities

Due to this valuable partnership, RNP is walking the talk in varied policing disciplines in pursuit for its vision.

Over the course of years, the greatest milestone is that the force has been able to grow in numbers by over 200 per cent since 2000, with women, who were hardly part of the new police force at the time, now comprising about 24% of the current total force.

This vision is in line with the aspiration of professionalising the force, making it enlightened, effective, efficient and accountable.

Thus, the force has established and improved on various policing disciplines, which include transforming policing institutions from scratch, and this was made possible through a strong and committed leadership that RNP has enjoyed since its inception.

Against this firm foundation, RNP has since equipped itself with modern policing tools, skills and knowledge, reinforced training including 7 cadet and 11 basic training intakes conducted, professional and on-job trainings, acquired state-of-art equipment like firefighting and rescue crane vehicles, marine boats, public order gadgets and other specialized vehicles and tools in policing.

This clearly justifies why the German ambassador believes that our Police is leading on the continental level.

Ed