Rwanda National Police (RNP), yesterday, started a countrywide tour to deliver President Paul Kagame’s New Year message to the commissioned officers in all units, assess their performance as well as encourage them to keep the course and work harder.

The president in his message challenged the force to remain focused and resilient to secure the nation against any threats which require "conventional and unconventional approaches” to overcome them, adding that working together shall "raise the Rwandan flag higher as we stay the course on Rwanda’s journey of transformation.”

As the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Emmanuel K. Gasana met with Commissioned Officers in the Eastern Province, his deputies Dan Munyuza of Operations and Juvenal Marizamunda of Administration and Personnel were in Northern and Southern provinces, respectively delivering the same message.

The City of Kigali and Western provinces will be visited on today.

 While delivering the message to officers at the Police Training School in Gishari, IGP Gasana challenged them to be accountable in everything they do.

 "Your daily operations should be characterised with complete sense of responsibility, carefulness, professionalism and driven by values. For us to maintain the momentum and even perform better we need to keep up with modern trends and be more vibrant at all times,” the Police Chief told the officers after reading to them the President’s message.

 He went on to detail some of the police achievements such as being among professional forces in terms of peacekeeping capabilities.

"So far we have five Formed Police Units operating in Central African Republic, Haiti and South Sudan; we have three advance police school and up-to-date policing equipment but we are still aiming for more,” he said.

 Elsewhere, at the National Police College, DIGP Munyuza, echoed the same message to commissioned officers operating in the Northern Province and two Western Province District Police Units of Rubavu and Nyabihu.

DIGP Munyuza pointed out that it’s time to evaluate how the force performed in 2015, the challenges they encountered and set priorities for 2016.

 Among the key area to focus on, according to DIGP Munyuza, are readiness to deal with emerging crimes like cyber, human trafficking and terrorism among others.

Munyuza also emphasised force discipline as a key determinant when it comes to evaluating the force’s performance.

He urged servicemen to play a major role in government programmes and encourage the public to participate as well.

In the Southern Province, DIGP Marizamunda who also delivered that same message reminded the officers that being part of the positive change requires maximum discipline.

He urged officers to be more innovative in their work.

At the beginning of every year, RNP leadership reach out to all units across the country as part of assessing their performance and encourage them to remain vigilant, committed and result-oriented in order to further support the ongoing national transformation process.