Kenya assures Afripol of its commitment to fight against crime globally

Kenya has assured Interpol and the African Union Mechanism for Police Cooperation (AFRIPOL) of its commitment to working with key partners to fight against crime globally.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i who officially opened AFRIPOL steering committee meeting in Nairobi, intimated that those African countries are facing cross-border crimes such as drugs and human trafficking, small arms trade, theft of motor vehicles, livestock rustling, smuggling of contrabands, and generally organised theft.

According to him, the only way to ensure that such crime is eradicated is by ensuring collaborative efforts between governments and key security bodies such as Interpol.

“Africa is increasingly coming under the threat of terrorism and religious extremism.

Our nations are nursing the ripple effect of traditional political leanings and international disputes, including the war in Ukraine. Terror networks are often international in nature,” Matiang’i said.

With the world being a global village, many global crimes are currently experienced as perpetrators and their networks upscale their operations across borders.

He said that such advancements need to be combated with more precision, more allocation of funds, and even change of tact and policy.

“Combating international crime is an expensive undertaking. Rising transnational crime and the complex nature of some of it obliges governments to allocate more resources to security budgets.

Spending more in intelligence gathering, policy reforms, costly equipment, and more officers for strategic deployment has become inevitable,” he said.

The CS appealed for collaborative partnerships, sharing of intelligence, advanced training, and harmonisation of border-monitoring policies between African governments and Afripol and Interpol to pool resources to combat shared security threats.

Meanwhile, president of Interpol, Ahmed Naser, has called on African countries to embrace the digitalisation of police systems to create more data for Interpol.

This is a step of international co-operation in the fight against crime globally.

Naser cautioned that Africa contributes only 0.78 percent of Interpol records despite contributing 16 percent of the global population.

The president of Afripol and the Inspector General of the police Hilary Mutyambayi reiterated the need to have African countries invest in policies and training to ensure that the security apparatus in Africa performs effectively and efficiently.