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Face-to- Face with IG Brima Acha Kamara: I have never been a Partisan IG as rumored by the Opposition SLPP

Author: SEM Contributor

The modest and articulate Inspector General of Police (IG) in Sierra Leone, Mr. Brima Acha Kamara is currently in the US.Â The IG was in London to attend the International Leadership Award Program, where he received a prestigious and enviable award for displaying exemplary leadership in policing post-war Sierra Leone.

Joseph Sherman of Foot Print News was privileged to conduct a face-to-face interview with IG Brima Acha Kamara at his residence in University Boulevard in Maryland where he is presently vacationing with his family and friends. In one of the questions posed to him that the opposition SLPP is accusing him of serving the interest of the ruling APC party, he dismissed the allegations as been absurd and contains no iota of truth.Â He said that during his tenure as Inspector General of Police in both the former SLPP government and the ruling APC government, he maintained neutrality and work with diligence and distinction to serve the Sierra Leone community in policing.

JS: Mr. IG, welcome to the US and congratulations for your prestigious and enviable award.Â For the benefit of the reading public can you briefly give your profile starting from your humble beginning as a law enforcement officer to this enviable position as the Inspector General of Police of the Republic Sierra Leone?

IG:Â Thank you very much; I was born in July 2, 1954 in the town of Mabokene in Bombali District, Makeni.Â I attended Albert Academy and matriculated to Fourah Bay College in 1981.Â I entered the Sierra Leone Police force as a cadet assistant to superintendent of police and worked in various divisions. I was staff officer and served under the Inspector Generals of Police like Mr. P.M. Johnson and Bambay Kamara and later on went to Exeter University to do my Master degree in Criminal and Justice Studies in 1995.Â In 2001, I went to the UK to study the Strategic and Command course at the Bramshill Police College and subsequently in 2003, I was appointed Inspector General of Police a position I held with distinction till now.

JS: That’s perfect.Â It is a very impressive profile and I see why the two regimes (APC and SLPP) maintained you because of your vast experience and qualification in the field of policing.Â Â I understand you received an award in London, can you tell us what the award entails and what it means to you?

IG: Well, in 2001, I did the Strategic Command course in London.Â The course is the highest police course in the UK that enables people to become Chief Police Officers.Â At the time I did very well andÂ as such they have been monitoring my performance and activities in the field of policingÂ because the trainers have a tradition in the UK to monitor and observe participants whether they are putting into practice what they have learned in the course.Â Annually, the institution organizes a dinner to honor police officers not only in the UK but worldwide especially those who participated in the course.Â As we all know, Britain is the mother of modern policing and their style of policing is not militaristic, rather, it is based on legitimacy through community acceptance and so forth.Â Normally, the institution monitors participants all over the world to keep track of their accomplishment in terms of policing.Â In 2008, the award was given to the Chief of Police of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the mere fact that he attended the course in London and tried to introduce a conservative method of policing.Â This year, I am the honored recipient of the prestigious award because I lifted Sierra Leone from post-conflict situation to a peace keeping in both Haiti, Somalia etc… and, above all in my tenure of service as Inspector General of Police, I reduced corruption and promoted human rights in the police force and also, I was able to maintain the successes of my predecessor who was a British Inspector General of Police.Â I am proud to be a Sierra Leonean in receiving the award.Â When I stood to receive the award, from the Chief Police Officers including the metropolitan commissioner, government officials, commonwealth and the Home office are filled with awe to honor me, as such I was filled with pride to be a Sierra Leonean despite the facts there are criticisms from some elements in our society, I am satisfied that I have contributed to the stability of the country.

JS:Â You pinpointed a very important issue on corruption in the police force.Â This issue of corruption in the police force is not only prevalent in Sierra Leone but Africa as a whole.Â What strategies or mechanisms did you use to minimize corruption in the police force?

IG:Â The first thing I did was to accept that there is corruption and when I utter such statement in Sierra Leone it made headlines in the mediaÂ saying that the IG himself has admitted that there is corruption.Â I feel that if one wants to make any impact on critical issues, you must admit that there is a problem, contrary to that you will never fight or find a solution to the problem.Â Before the anti-corruption came in, there are certain structures that we put in place.Â We have an internal investigation department which I gaveÂ backing to investigate corrupt police officers that were caught and we instituted the “blame culture” in which no hiding place for miscreants and we did a lot of sensitization in which police officers are made to know that whatever they do, they are made to account for it.Â Â Moreover, we tried to de-link the men who are engaged in policing- like traffic with their leaders not to institutionalize corruption in the police force.Â I also try to reduce corruption by reducing a lot of check points and publicize the names of those engaged in corruption in the newspapers and we held radio discussions.Â We have asked Anti Corruption Unit to work with the police force and as a result we don’t harbor any sacred cow in the police force.Â This is the reason why it is difficult to prosecute police officers for corrupt practices and even when the Anti Corruption Unit conducted their research on system analysis, they noticed that the police force have gone a long way in combating corruption.

JS: Excellent, I admire your courage in admitting that there is corruption in the police force. Now, one important issue that is boggling the minds of Sierra Leoneans and investors is the spate of armed robbery.Â What are you doing to curtail this problem?

IG:Â In the first place in Sierra Leone, every issue is being politicized.Â As a head of the police, I have statistics showing that the crime rate has dramatically reduced.Â When some things are been politicized then we have newspapers putting fear in the minds of people.Â We have Public Relation (PR) failure because we are overwhelmed by criticism of certain elements in our society but in actual fact I did see people panicking because of rumors.Â How many times have people being murdered because of armed-robbery?Â Â People travel the length and width of Sierra Leone without any incident of harassment, people go to night clubs and return home safely and I, as Inspector General of Police go to the beach without fear of armed robbers.Â So the issue of armed robbers was unnecessarily heightened.Â Â Of course President Koroma stepped in order to reassure the citizens that he has all the resources that peoples fear were unnecessarily heightened.Â So the president instituted the Military Aid to Civil Power (MACP).Â During the elections, I asked the assistance of the military because of the threat level which helped the conduct of the elections unhindered.Â The press is responsible in spreading fear in the minds of citizens.Â Sierra Leone has been the quietest country since we emerge from the civil crisis and that is the reason I was given the award.Â Mind you, the British have their diplomats and officials; they give feed back to their country of any insecurity.Â Â If the British honors me for citizens’ safety, I see no reason why certain elements should politicize the issue.Â We have deployed more police men in the streets to ensure citizens safety, so police officers will not only be confined in the police stations but they will be policing the streets and at times we have become victims of our success because the country has been relatively peaceful all this years.Â We must bear in mind that there is going to be isolated incidences especially now that the down-trend of the economy is world-wide including Sierra Leone is taking a toll on it citizens.

JS:Â The security network of any country is very important.Â What challenges are you facing and would want the government to improve on or the international community to render assistance?

IG: Policing in the first place is an expensive business and if there is a miss-match between responsibilities and resources, then our ability to solve crimes becomes very limited.Â It is not a problem of leadership as our leadership is very strategic as I mentioned in my previous interview- the leadership is well educated, the leadership is committed but then if the resources cannot correspond with the increasing responsibilities that the government is to undertake then it will be difficult.Â Â However, I think the president realizes that, although, I pity the government because of its limited scope in having internal revenue but yet still as a committed leader we have gone beyond what we receive from government to ensure that we have a revenue generation project and we have reduced what we get from that to get a number of infrastructural activities, logistical requirements and so forth.

JS: What about the Operational Security Division (OSD) that provides security protection for high ranking government officials.Â Why are they not armed to ensure maximum security for those they are protecting?

IG:Â Well, that is one of the problems.Â The uniqueness of the Sierra Leone Police force is that two-third of its men and women are not armed and I like it that way because to provide arms and ammunition to everybody is very costly. The training and buying of resources are aspects that should be considered and, when we present ourselves as friends of the community and carrying arms and ammunition everywhere that will distort the legitimacy of our scope of work.Â But yet still you are right, when we have one-third of the force to be armed, in the first place we have to procure the arms and ammunitions.Â Secondly, we need to intensify on the training aspects because if have these arms and ammunitions and the personnel are not properly trained, they might misuse them and so forth.Â So, it is a question that government is addressing because ifÂ we have three thousand OSD personnel and they are well armed to carry on theÂ hard aspects of policing while the rest takes over the softer issues in community policing and so forth it is in the best interest of citizens and foreigners alike.Â Â It is something that the government is looking into.

JS:Â What about the issue of rape and atrocities which the opposition SLPP accused the government of not addressing judiciously and even went to the extent of accusing you of being APC partisan, therefore, justice was not rendered to the aggrieved party?

IG:Â In the first place I have never been an active member of any political party and that’s why I have been able to succeed because I believe in serving the community and not serving individuals.Â Individuals can come and go.Â What happens is that, sometimes, I am not diplomatic; I am very blunt to speak the facts.Â I have all the intelligence, all the information.Â When this issue happened, the UN and all the parties came together.Â There was this communiquÃ© that was signed and one aspect of it is to have an independent commission to investigate not only issues of rape but the issues surrounding why the incident occurred.Â We interviewed the family support unit of the SLPP and the alleged aggrieved parties and took statements but unfortunately with all the propaganda that was going on, nobody came out to substantiate or deny what these people said in their own statements.Â Secondly, we looked at the medical report and, in my own view the report was very weak and in policing when you don’t have enough evidence is just a waste of resources and by then the propaganda was so intense that the image of the country was deliberately smeared as a rapist country.Â All I did was to call a press conference, read what was written in the police report and I told them that there was no sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations and that people who claimed to be affected by the rape allegations should come out, but even with this statement nobody came out.Â Being concerned about the image of the country, I have to come out with a position statement that there is nothing to substantiate the issue of rape.Â Although, there are crimes committed –assault and battery,Â fortunately when the commission that was set up went with my own view, the opposition concluded that because of the statement I made on the issue, the commission have to abide by it, which I believed was an insult to the commissioner of investigation.Â It is absurd logically in a chaotic situation to have rape to take place.

JS: I know political propaganda and perceived act of violence are imminent in Sierra Leone come 2012 elections.Â What mechanisms and preparedness have you put in place to curtail violence and insecurity in the country?

IG:Â Even as we discuss now, we have unscrupulous people who are bent on starring trouble so that individuals would be dismissed from their jobs or have them carry blames for their mischief but we are preparing and a whole unit called the Operational Police Unit which is now trying to analyze situations and gather intelligence around to identify possible threat around.Â Â Consequently, we are trying to identify our strength and weaknesses and what we should have before the next general elections.Â We have other institutions of concern such as the NEC and the Civil Society Movement and other organizations.Â We will ensure that we are well capacitated in terms of logistical input and training and so forth.Â I believe our donor friends- such as the Germans who have come in to assist the Sierra Leone Police Force and working with the UN system in this aspect, I believe by 2012 we will be well prepared.Â Mind you, we have this policy called Military Aid to Civil Power (MACP) because what our strategies would be is to bring all government resources to ensure that we have free and fair elections and I am prepared to be very apolitical-being very neutral, and it is very important for people to believe in your policing and neutrality, then, they will accept you to police them.Â This is the reason I fell out with some people because of my refusal for the police force to be hijacked and arm-twisted.Â

JS:Â I thank you very much Mr. IG for granting Foot Print News this interview.Â Finally, what message would you like to give to Sierra Leoneans and investors in general about safety environment in Sierra Leone?

IG:Â Well, one simple message which is a key aspect of this presidency is attitudinal and behavioral change.Â We need to change our attitude and be very patriotic.Â Â We Sierra Leoneans are not patriotic.Â Â We seem to engage in negative activities even though we see some light at the end of the tunnel and refuse to acknowledge that changes are taking place.Â We need to appreciate individual and collective input in Sierra Leone because if don’t love ourselves it will tend to negate all the good intentions of individuals, the government and so forth.Â If we love our country we can embrace the culture of openness and dialogue on issues of concern.Â Â

Thank you very much for granting meÂ this interview to elaborate on issues which most people are doubtful about Sierra Leone.

JS:Â Thank you, it’s a pleasure.

By Joseph S. Sherman, Editor-in Chief, Foot Print News, USA

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