This is a reaction to an "Open letter to Police” in The New Times issue 1288 of the Sept 21, 2007.

The Police is always ready to accomplish its mission as prescribed by the Rwanda Government and the population: Indeed, despite the number of Police officers, it is still not enough in reference to the tasks to accomplish.

One can affirm that Rwanda National Police is doing a good job to ensure peace and security to all Rwandans, be it in the capital Kigali or up country.

The Police is also doing everything possible to increase the number of Police officers in operation to attain the noble goal of keeping every citizen out of aggression and any kind of offence.

On the other hand, every citizen should have a hand in preserving his own basic rights and in fighting against disruption of individual’s domestic rights.

Putting on a radio at high volume in a residential area is against the law as stipulated in the Penal Code "Art 280”, "Anyone who is found guilty of making noise and a racket which can disturb public peace at night shall pay a fine ranging from Frw800 to Frw1000.

” This amount has been updated since.”

In case of recidivism (sic) during the same year, the fine shall be doubled or the offender be jailed for a period of eight days to two mounts.

Nonetheless, this case can be handled at community level. A victim of disturbance by noise especially at night can refer to the cell coordinator”UMUDUGUDU) who can in turn alert the sector’s authorities”UMURENGE).

The producer of the noise can be summoned to the sector’s office to explain why he adopts such behaviour. The law mentioned above can be enforced with the help of local defence personnel.

Some cases of breach of the law can be handled by authorities at community level. As a matter of fact, Police has initiated "community policing committees” at the sector levels in which members of the society will participate actively in fighting crime in the areas where they reside.

This shall be achieved with the support of the Police in the area. It will be achieved through the teaching of human rights to members of the community. Every grown up citizen can be a member of the ‘community Policing Committee’ at his/her home area.

Inspector Willy Marcel Higiro

RNP- Rwanda National Police