Minister for Home Affairs, Charles Kitwanga disclosed the new development yesterday in Dar es Salaam when speaking before members of the HIV and Drug Use Parliamentary Committee, who wanted to know the Police Force’s strategies to reinforce security in areas where police posts are closed at 6pm.
Kitwanga said apart from building some new stations, his ministry would soon introduce mobile police stations across the country, which would keep moving to areas where there is need of policing services.
He said the ministry was still constructing some conventional stations albeit with limited resources, saying it was why the government had resorted to adopting cost-effective mobile police stations.
“The construction has begun with the Kinondoni Police Region,” he said.
He noted that most of the police posts were insecure particularly during evening and night hours due to lack of sufficient infrastructure and limited number of law enforcers.
“Our police posts will be closed at 6pm because our police officers become insecure after that time... instead, police stations will be reinforced so that they operate for 24 hours,” the minister said.
He, however, said that increasing number of criminal incidents which are alleged to have been committed by police officers in airports, borders and other areas have caused complaints among members of the public despite efforts to take punitive measures against the perpetrators.
“Stern measures are being taken against all police officers proved to have been collaborating with criminals... the government will continue to take action against those who go against rules and regulations governing the police force,” the minister said, adding: “In Tanzania there are many people out there who are in need of jobs, so we’ll not hesitate to fire all police officers who would be found mudslinging the force’s good image.”
Kitwanga disclosed that there were 45,000 police officers, 8,000 prison wardens and more than 2,000 immigration officers across the country, but the challenge remained on how to identify those who go against ethics.
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