{UAH} What is left of police is the uniform

What is left of police is the uniform

Written by Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda

Created: 27 April 2016

Gen Kale Kayihura was appointed Inspector General of Police (IGP) in November 2005. His appointment coincided with the return of Col Dr Kizza Besigye from exile in South Africa.

Dealing with Besigye whose popularity soared beyond expectation, therefore, became Kayihura's first major assignment. I think even in his own estimation, Kayihura never thought Besigye will become a daily and almost permanent assignment.

And it is understanding why Besigye has become a permanent assignment that both Kayihura and his boss will find a solution and permanent answer. To his credit, police has grown in numbers, budget, equipment and Kayihura. Eleven years ago when Gen Edward Katumba Wamala was at its helm, the force was just about 18,000.

Today, under Kayihura, the force has grown to over 60,000. The police annual budget has also increased from about Shs 150bn to over Shs 500bn this year. The equipment acquired has been on the display for all to see. Even what we thought belonged to the military, today police has.

Kayihura has become the first police boss with unlimited access to the military. He occasionally deploys both the military and police as if they are a single unit. In fact, when they recently surrounded my house, Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) was being commanded by police. And these days, police officers are made to undergo military trainings.

Haruna Isabirye, the new director of operations, returned recently from Nairobi, where he did I think a National Defence College course. This course is done by high ranking military officers, from colonel and above in some countries. Therefore, militarization of the force has been completed. The Uganda Police Force will remain a military outfit for a long time. What has remained police is the uniform.

But what is most important for me, and it is the theme of this article, is the loyalty of the policemen. From his action, it appears Kayihura's other assignment was to mold a force that is more loyal to the regime than the country. That is why the number of recruits from western Uganda dramatically increased.

Both the president and his queen also started recommending both recruitment and deployment into the force. All over a sudden, Runyakitara become a dominant language in police like it has become at many public workplace. Most of the prominent divisional and district police commanders (DPCs) were to be drawn mainly from the west. These days, we speak less about it because it has also become permanent.

The president had complained that between him and a jerrycan, police would vote for the former. Making police vote for mzee was, therefore, a legitimate target. But in the February 18 general elections, the police didn't vote for the jerrycan but Col Besigye.

Besigye won at all the three Naguru polling stations near the police headquarters and inside the big residence of officers and men. What followed was a big purge.

First, meetings were held to investigate why police that has been built by Kayihura for the last 11 years changed its mind and turned the back against mzee. Some officers claimed on the voting day, they were in the field supervising elections, and therefore, didn't vote from Naguru. Those who voted for Besigye are, therefore, members of their families, who are civilians.

An order to clear all civilians from barracks was, therefore, issued. Some officers pleaded with us on the committee on defence and internal affairs to help. The order meant separating parents from their secondary school-going children.

All "self-help" small houses constructed in Naguru barracks were demolished or ordered to be demolished. There was fear the barracks had been sold, which is also possible? I don't know where that cleansing exercise has reached.

But just a few days ago, I received a call from The observer for a comment on claims by police spokesperson, this Enanga man, that Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has planted spies in the force. That, as a party, we are planning to attack police posts with the guidance of our spies in the force! That is now an interesting one!

And it takes me back to the point I made earlier about Besigye. Both the president and Gen Kayihura think Besigye and FDC are the real enemy and problem. The truth is that everybody who cares for Uganda has or is about to become an enemy. Kayihura and his boss will soon realize that they are surrounded by enemies.

The solution, therefore, doesn't lie in rescreening the police force again, but in doing the inevitable, and that is handing over the people's power to a new set of human resource. Once that is done, the military will return to barracks and we will require fewer funds to procure armoured vehicles for policing.

Taking soldiers away from the population is what this regime preached in the past. It is the reason Lubiri was handed over, and soldiers taken to Kakiri and Bombo. They are now back on all hills in Kampala and open spaces. The centre cannot hold any more.

semugs@yahoo.com

The author is Kyadondo East MP.

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H.OGWAPITI
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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that  we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic  and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt

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