Rwanda National Police (RNP) together with 110 Diaspora students from the Indangamirwa Foundation, yesterday, joined residents of Kamonyi District in the monthly community service - Umuganda. The community work was marked with planting of over 7,200 trees, clearing roadside trenches and dialoguing on public safety, welfare and development. Indangamirwa Foundation is made up of youth who studied or are still studying out of the country and have undertaken civic education commonly known as Itorero. Speaking after Umuganda, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Celestin Ntivuguruzwa, rallied for hard work and preserving public safety. “To keep up with the pace of development, we must work harder and ensure security as means to preserve what we have achieved,” Ntivuguruzwa said. He commended the continued commitment and partnership between the public and security organs in ensuring a crime-free society. “Security is what has brought us this far in terms of development. Today, Rwanda is among the global models of the safest place to be,” he noted. The communal exercise was also attended by legislators; Athanasie Gahondogo and Mediatrice Izabiriza; Commissioner for Community Policing in RNP, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Celestin Twahirwa, the head of the Islamic community in Rwanda, Mufti Sheikh Salim Habimana, representatives of different security organs as well as district local leaders. Addressing the Diaspora students, ACP Twahirwa tutored them about their individual role as the elites in ensuring public safety. “We live in a dynamic world whose trends change by the day; what happens elsewhere has an impact on us, same as what happens here can impact on people somewhere else. We need to use all our efforts to protect each other from any form of crime or anything harmful,” ACP Twahirwa said. He went on to say that Police is no longer the sole guardian of law and order and that policing today is about influencing positive attitudes. “In community policing, we believe that crime is a social phenomenon, meaning that, where there are people there will be crimes, that’s why your role in crime prevention is paramount. When it comes to prevention of crimes, everyone comes on board,” said the Commissioner. The president of Indangamirwa Foundation, Philbert Ndugu, said: “As the elite community, we are taking a lead in sensitizing the public on crime prevention. We do that by being models and people of integrity, that way, we can influence positive attitude among our country men and women.” By partnering with RNP and Muslim youths to join Kamonyi residents in community work, Ndugu said, they are fronting the ideal inclusiveness in security and development. “All our activities are centered at national development, but we cant achieve that without security, that’s why we believe we have to work very closely with police as a law enforcing organ. Besides today’s umuganda, we have several awareness activities that we are going to be doing with the police in the coming future…among those include campaigns on crime prevention, prevention of HIV and campaigns against radicalization,” Ndugu said.
