[UAH] Pius Katunzi: Brutal police should be held personally liable
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11:45 AM |
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After watching on television, on Thursday, how the riot police brutalised some of the people that crossed their path, I could not help but convince myself that civilisation took a major collapse in the UPF.
I am not inclined to think that a trained and civilised police officer can have the liberty to hand-cuff a citizen and then go ahead to step on his head. The same event made me ask this question; for whom do the police work?
In this particular incident, NTV showed a man at Kisekka market, who surrendered and willingly held out his arms to be hand-cuffed. He didn't resist arrest, even though he protested his innocence.
The officers hand-cuffed him but continued to hit him with their batons. They gleefully clobbered his knees, sniggered at him with questions like ateonokolaki, weyita ki? (Who do call yourself, what will you do?).
All this was done in full glare of the cameras. But the officers, perhaps taking advantage of the cover of the riot head gear, didn't give a hoot about anything.
He was forced to lie below the seats. This is very dehumanising and it's against the law to torture, degrade or treat any person inhumanely. Why does police allow anger to get the better of them?
After President Museveni captured power in 1986, he often described the UPF as Oboteist or UPCist. At one moment the president had contemplated disbanding the UPF and replacing it with the National Resistance Army (NRA).
We are told the former minister of Internal Affairs, Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, and the then National Political Commissioner, Dr Warren Kizza Besigye, prevailed on him. The president continued posting various army officers at various police stations to monitor the work of police.
One of them was the former Chief of the Defence Forces, Gen Aronda Nyakairima. So, from day one, there was no love lost between the president and the police. In the meantime, he shuffled and dropped several police heads.
The denouement was in 2005, when he appointed Gen Katumba Wamala as the Inspector General of Police. Katumba, even though he was a military man, brought the much-needed human face to the UPF. He made some reforms, including revamping the tainted image of the force. He was popular with people and officers alike. He was more inclined to community policing.
But he was not to stay there for long. He was replaced by another military man, Gen Kale Kayihura. Unlike Wamala, Kayihura militarised the UPF. Police lost its civil character. He introduced the Special Police Constables (SPCs). These SPCs damaged the image of police. They were involved in killings, robberies and thefts.
They were quietly disbanded. He has since created many departments and sections and disbanded others. For instance, CID is no more; instead we have Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Department (CIID). Many young officers were promoted and put in charge of various departments, units and stations. These ones are absolutely loyal to the IGP. They have also executed the orders [whether lawful or not] to their superior's satisfaction.
One would have thought that the UPF, which has undergone so many reforms, would be pro-people. Not as yet. Several Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) reports, have accused the UPF, of gross abuse of human rights. Clearly this force was not detoxicated of Oboteism.
Perhaps the answer lies in adopting the Kenyan style. Overzealous police officers who torture their victims under the guise of enforcing the law have been warned that they would personally be liable for those breaches of the law. High court judge Justice Mumbi Ngugi, fed up with the police impunity, said unless the police officers were made to personally pay for the wanton abuse of citizens' fundamental rights, there would be no end to impunity.
In Uganda, the taxpayers (through the state), usually shoulder the burden of paying damages to those whose rights have been violated. The argument is that in such cases, it's the Attorney General, not the individual officers, who are sued. And this is because police claims that such violation happened in the course of their duties. But like we witnessed on TV, there are glaring breaches of the constitution and Police Act, and this liability must be placed on the concerned officers.
pmkatunzi@observer.ug
The author is the Business Development Director, The Observer Media Ltd.
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Comments
We should be able to go after their personal property via civil court. This will teach the Kaweesis a lesson in following orders blindly so as to please their masters.
Ugandans need to demand for serious reforms in the constitution where the chiefs of police, prisons, Judiciary, electoral commission are not appointed by the president but by the public. Too much power vested in the president is the sole cause of this.
I think we are stuck between a rock and hard place. This is a sign that the State has lost it as evidenced in its failure to provide quality public and social services. Someone has to arrest our feudal politics before they get out of hand.
The govt of Kenya did not collapse, and the protestors killed nobody.Instead the country will save money.The actions of the police in Uganda takes the country no where,it is only evidence of a collapsed state.
Remember the black mamba who turned up at the high court? A few days later they were in police uniforms. The men in uniforms had their souls rout out and all we have are devil's advocates. I totally believe they inject themselves with some kind of drugs before such missions.