Dr. John Mungai 11 min

Towards a Forensic DNA Database Policy Program in Africa


Dr. John Mungai, fondly known as the ‘Father of DNA’ in East Africa, is a pioneer in the establishment of forensic DNA laboratories in the East African region. He has three decades of experience spanning casework, mass disaster identification, and succession. Join Dr. Mungai as he describes how the East African community has adopted essential forensic DNA practices and the implementation of the Sexual Offenses Act in Kenya- the first statute to allow the collection of DNA samples for evidentiary purposes. He describes challenges he has faced in establishing the forensic DNA platform in East Africa and how he has addressed those challenges. Dr. Mungai discusses some of the fascinating cases he has worked on in Africa where DNA was used to advance justice and help identify the missing.



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[Music]

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I'm John Kimani-Mongai. I am a forensic scientist. And for the last 34 years I

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have been in charge of the

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Forensic Science Division of the Government, Chemist Department in Kenya. I'm

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referred to be the

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father of forensic DNA in East Africa since I was the pioneer of the forensic

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DNA in Kenya.

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And then when the neighbouring countries such as Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and

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the

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Portland in Somalia came to learn about the work that we were doing in Kenya.

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They came and trained

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with us and they have already started their DNA profiling system in their

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countries.

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The first case that we worked on was of a body of a lady that was found laid on

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a railway line

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in a slum area called Dandora. The first responder was a police officer who

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noticed some red-looking

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stains on the fingernails of this lady. The first responder swapped these nail

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scropings and

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forwarded them to us at the government, Chemist Department for Analysis. We

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generated a DNA profile

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and what we got was a male DNA profile. And the DNA profiles matched that one

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of the unscrunched

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husbands. It was used by the court to convict the husband. It was covered by

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the media highly

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and everybody else came to learn about the presence of the DNA profiling system

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in our country.

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We also used this particular type of case to convince the head of the

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department to provide

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extra budget and extra space so that we can expand on the DNA system that is

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there.

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Some gun members that were protecting within the aerobic area, they met two

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American tourist ladies

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and sexually assaulted them. One of the ladies used the shoal to wipe herself.

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This shoal was submitted to the government, Chemist Department for DNA

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profiling. But one of the

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suspects refused to participate in the identification parade and also he

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refused for his DNA samples

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taken. Four years after this case, we had elections in year 2007. One of the

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members of

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parliament who had won an election within an area called Embarcasy. He was

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murdered and the police

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zeroed down on four suspects. They took the DNA samples. Three of them were

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eliminated.

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But one of these suspects called Carlos, his DNA profiles, were generated. The

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DNA profiles on his

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jacket matched the DNA profiles of the member of parliament. The DNA profiles

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generated from his

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blood also matched the DNA profiles from the seminal stains that were generated

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from the shoal that

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was collected from one of the American tourists that was raped about three or

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four years down the line.

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And this one explains the reason why we need a criminal DNA databunk within

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that region.

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I strongly believe if we had a DNA criminal DNA databunk, the honorable member

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of parliament for

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Langata would have been alive even today since that case would have been

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resolved earlier since

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the suspect would have been in doubt before he committed the other crimes. When

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I started

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the issues of the forensic DNA analysis in Kenya, the major challenge that I

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encountered was

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budgetary constraints since we had to buy new reagents. Another challenge that

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I had was to

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convince the other staff members the reason why we should be able to move from

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the conventional

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methods that were available and especially human identification based on their

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blood group

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ABO systems that was not very very conclusive. The way I overcame this one was

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to convince

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the head of my department why we needed to get extra funding to procure re

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agents for the DNA

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analysis and also convince the staff members the reason why every other person

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in the forensic

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community is moving away from human identification based on their blood group A

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BO system to the new

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method that was highly specific for the human identification for DNA analysis.

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Despite having a DNA profiling system running in Kenya starting from that

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particular time,

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the major challenges that are still there if they're now is the quality of the

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evidential materials

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that are submitted to the laboratory and especially from the first responders,

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they are the ones sometimes who tamper with evidence contaminating these

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evidence.

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And especially in sexual offenses cases it takes too long for the evidential

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materials to be

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submitted to the laboratory and this one really reduces the quality of the

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evidential material

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or sometimes it gets depleted completely before it gets to the laboratory.

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After moving from

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one technology to a more advanced technology, the reagents became more

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expensive and amount of

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money allocated for running that department still remains fixed. So you'll find

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that there is still

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a lot of backlog so much evidential materials that remains unprocessed and in

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this particular

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situation it really delays the dispensation of just these encodes. The

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policymakers are the ones

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that allocate budgets and especially the parliamentarians. It appears in many

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countries developing

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countries the parliamentarians don't understand very much about the need for

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evidential analysis

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based on DNA. So if we can convince the parliamentarians to allocate more funds

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for forensic

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sciences and especially in developing countries like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania

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and convince them

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the reason why it will be able to assist with the criminal justice system, it

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will be the best

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way to go around that one. The most important laws that need to be put into

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place is to have a

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criminal DNA database and the major problems that we have in East African and

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especially

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Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that borders are quite porous so criminals commit

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crimes in one

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jurisdiction and they move to other jurisdictions. So if you have a law that is

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governing the criminal

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DNA systems it will be very easy for the law enforcement officers to track

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these criminals

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who commit crimes from one jurisdiction to another one. Issues of information

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sharing

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in the criminal justice system is quite important. So if Kenya, Uganda and

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Tanzania,

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law enforcement officers can be able to share these DNA profiles of the people

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who are committing

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crimes, it will be very easy to track down these people who are committing

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crimes.

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The whole world to know that criminals do not respect geographical boundaries.

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Criminals commit crimes in one jurisdiction and then disappear to other

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jurisdictions so it is very important that we have a system that can be able to

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be tracking down

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these criminals. The major problem that we're having in the world today is

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issues of terrorism.

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They start from one jurisdiction and then they become international criminals.

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We have a tool

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that can be able to track down these criminals. We shall have a good world to

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live in.

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The foreign sector in Africa, I believe they are very knowledgeable and very

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innovative and

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despite the law, budgetary constraints that are there, they can be able to

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follow the protocols

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that are there and sometimes they have their own protocols that they use to

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develop DNA profiling

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from very challenging samples. So I also feel that the forensic scientists in

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Africa get all the

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journals from the developing countries where they are able to borrow the

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protocols that they have

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been using up to now. When I joined the government came into the department, I

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knew nothing about

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foreign sector at all but I met some staff members that were doing a very good

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job

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and one of them was the head of the foreign sectorology where I walked in. He

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had a passion

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for that job and I also became interested on what he was doing. I used to join

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him when he was going

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to give evidence in court and that's where developed interests in foreign

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sciences. I still have

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that passion and that interest today and I'm using it also to train young

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foreign

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sixth-century studies at the university level. Initially we started small as a

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forensic DNA laboratory.

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Now we have three foreign sixth-sense laboratories in Kenya, one serving the

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western region,

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where the labs are in the coastal region and one serving the central region.

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From these,

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we also have had laboratories in Uganda, we have had laboratories in Tanzania,

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we have had laboratories in Rwanda and we also have laboratories in Portland,

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Somalia. All this

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one started from the training facilities in our laboratory in Kenya. I can see

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there is a lot of

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growth and my vision is the issues of talking to one another. We didn't know

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much about what is

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happening in in West Africa. We didn't know much about what was happening in in

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South Africa,

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but from the project of the DNA Africa, we are able to understand what other

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countries are doing

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and the progress that we are making. So the vision that I have for Africa is un

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iting the whole

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continent and sharing DNA profiles to reduce the rate of crimes. The issues

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that we have as I have

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said is that forensic science is quite wide. We have different key players. If

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one key player or

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one cog that it's moving doesn't function very well, it affects the other cogs

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and it affects the

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criminal justice system, we are unstoppable. That's what I strongly believe.

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The journey has already

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started and this journey will not stop until all the countries of Africa talk

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in one voice

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to reduce the rate of crimes in Africa and in the whole world as life.

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