{Two officials from the Zanzibar’s Anti-corruption and Economic Crimes Authority (ZAECA), yesterday, visited Rwanda National Police (RNP) General Headquarters as part of their tour to learn best practices in fighting economic crimes against graft.}
Shashid Said Selimena, one of the officials, said that Rwanda’s strategic approach at all levels including RNP, makes it one of the best places to visit and to learn from.
“Zanzibar’s anti-corruption and economic crimes authority is a relatively new body, setup in 2013, but willing to learn from best practices elsewhere,” Selimena said.
“This visit to Rwanda and the police in particular is a great learning experience that will inform Zanzibar’s strategies against graft in the near future.”
“Rwanda’s anti-corruption initiatives, mainly the political will, should be copied by countries in the region and Africa at large, to minimize the impact corruption presents to the development of nations.”
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Celestin Twahirwa, the Commissioner for Community policing in RNP, who received the officials, explained to them that the struggle to combat graft in Rwanda is a “concerted effort from both state and non-state actors and members of the public.”
“We have an inter-state agency coordination mechanism where information about graft is exchanged without compromising each other’s core functions” ACP Twahirwa said.
He said that through this complimentary role speareheaded by top leadership and political will, Rwanda has been able to curtail corruption to significant levels.
He said police uses different forms of dialogue through community policing methods and media to sensitize and involve the public in fighting corruption.
“Police has partnerships with various stakeholders including youth organizations, community policing committees, anti-crime clubs, and unique partnership with public and private institutions, to weed out corruption jointly” he noted
ACP Twahirwa also explained that within the police structures, an ant-corruption and embezzlement units were established to specifically fight corruption in and outside the police.
International and regional reports rank Rwanda one of the least corrupt countries globally.
Source:Police
Leave a Reply