BUJUMBURA December 20th (ABP) – Members of the Burundi parliament met in plenary on Wednesday, December 16, 2021, at the Kigobe hemicycle, to analyze and pass the bill on the bylaw of agents of the national police of Burundi.
The Minister of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, Mr. Gervais Ndirakobuca, who was on site to shed some light on that bill, said that in its article 254, the Burundian constitution provides for organic laws determining the establishment, missions, organization, instruction, conditions of service and operation of the national defense force of Burundi, the National Police and the national intelligence service. Added to this is that the National Police of Burundi is governed by Organic Law N° 1/03 enacted on February 20, 2017 on the mission, composition, organization and functioning of the National Police of Burundi.
Returning to certain innovations brought about by that bill, the minister in charge of public security specified that in chapter III, in articles 62 to 74, it is stipulated that the career of the police agents begins on the day of their recruitment.
The chapter also specifies that the national police agent must be in a position either of activity, of secondment leave or of non-service activity. The latter position includes suspension by order, absence recognized as irregular, layoff for personal convenience and accepted resignation, he said.
In addition, the same bill provides that agents are subject to appeal before the high court.
Another innovation of that bill, as Mr. Ndirakobuca always indicates, is that the candidate agent is recruited single without children and remains so until the end of their third year of service. He continued to say that the candidate must be of Burundian nationality and without dual nationality while pointing out that the penalty of demotion has been introduced in the list of penalties applicable to national police agents.
During the oral questioning session, some parliamentarians raised concerns about the precarious conditions in which police agents live, which often means that some of them violate ethics. That is why they wanted to know the best of that bill in terms of improving the living conditions of national police agents.
As for dress, the MPs said they had information that the said police agents were only allowed one dress for the whole year, so their clothes wore out quickly.
Another major concern that was raised by officials- elect concerned police agents who have university degrees but who are still languishing in this rank. Some MPs then wanted the latter to be rehabilitated in their rights by rising their rank and then integrate them into the rank of officers.
In that regard, the Minister of the Interior has indicated that he does not have, in any case, an answer to give to that concern while believing that this question is much more oriented in politics.
Regarding the best that this bill brings in improving the living conditions of police agents, Mr. Ndirakobuca reassured that this bill is more advantageous than the old one.
Regarding the dress-related issue, he denied it, claiming that every police agent is entitled to two outfits and two boots each year. However, he said, the current year has disrupted the situation to such an extent that the ordered outfits have not yet arrived due to Covid-19.
That bill on the bylaw of national police agents was not passed because of the quorum which was not reached and its adoption was postponed to a later date.