NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 23 – Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai has pledged to champion the fight against transnational organized crimes such as terrorism in the region during his one-year tenure as AFRIPOL President.
Mutyambai assumed the presidency of the Bureau of the African Union Mechanism for Police Cooperation (AFRIPOL) General Assembly on October 26 after Kenya was elected to the coveted position during the Fourth AFRIPOL Virtual General Assembly held on October 20, in an event that brought together 115 participants from AFRIPOL Member States and cooperating partners.
The IG, currently on a work tour in Algeria, also promised to step up intelligence gathering and sharing amongst member countries and joint trainings and operations to realize the AFRIPOL mandate.
AFRIPOL is established as a technical institution of the African Union (AU) for police cooperation among Member States.
“AFRIPOL General Assembly President and Inspector General of the National Police Service-Kenya Mr. Hilary Mutyambai made an official visit to AFRIPOL headquarters today to familiarize himself with the mandate and operations of the Organization and Secretariat,” the National Police Service (NPS) said Monday.
Mutyambai was received AFRIPOL headquarters by the Executive Director of AFRIPOL Dr. Tarek A. Sharif and Secretariat staff. Also present was the representative of the outgoing President, Farid Zineddine Bencheikh, Commissioner General of Algerian police.
“The AFRIPOL president received an executive briefing from the executive director and the representative of the outgoing president,” the NPS added.
Some of the activities undertaken during Mutyambai’s visit include a presentation on AFSECOM system, which is a law enforcement system pioneered as a communication backbone of all AFRIPOL member countries and a presentation on AFRIPOL Operational Framework.
Other activities involved the presentation on the NEF-AFRIPOL project, a network of excellence in forensics of AFRIPOL member countries aimed at building capacity in forensic capabilities across the member countries.
The IG also had a virtual meeting with members of AFRIPOL General Assembly Bureau.
In attendance were Republic of Congo, Algeria, Botswana and moderated by the executive director Dr. Terek S. Sharif.
The Members of AFRIPOL General Assembly Bureau congratulated Mutyambai on his election, and promised to closely work with him in order to achieve his vision.
Kenya takes over the position at a time when some countries in the region are experiencing various security threats including the threat of terrorism from the Somalia-based terror outfit, Al-Shabaab, Mali’s Islamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS) group, and Boko Haram in Nigeria amongst other terrorist organizations like Uganda’s Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) jihadist group.
In the most recent attack, on November 16, twin blasts rocked Uganda’s capital Kampala claiming the lives of three civilians’ lives and injuring dozens.
The incident forced neighboring countries like Kenya to upscale its security along porous borders and key security installations across the country.
AFRIPOL is established as a technical institution of the African Union (AU) for police cooperation among Member States.
Modelled on the philosophy and practice of UNPOL (United Nations Police), AFRIPOL (Africa Police) is a structured cooperation of AU Member States law enforcement aiming to promote democratic policing values and attendant policing good practices amongst members.
