{UAH} 8 police officers commit crime every month

SATURDAY JANUARY 27 2018

8 police officers commit crime every month

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In the dock. Former commander of Police Special Operations Nixon Agasirwe at the General Court Martial in Makindye, Kampala last year. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA.  

In Summary

• Infiltrated. The President has repeatedly asked police chief Kale Kayihura to clean his house of criminals.

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By Stephen Kafeero

Kampala.

More than 50 police officers and senior personnel within the Uganda Police Force have either been arrested or implicated in thefts and robberies in less than six months, a review by Saturday Monitor shows.
This means at least eight police officers get into trouble with the law every month. The figure could be much higher since some of the cases are not captured in the media, while some other police officers involved in crime get away with it. 
Since the start of this year – in a space of less than a month - at least 11 police officers and men have been caught up in a string of armed robberies, extortions and thefts. 
Saturday Monitor conducted a mini-survey based on police's own reports, media and other reports and focused on criminal cases where police officers are involved in robberies, thefts and other crimes. The survey left out cases of killings involving police officers during the same period. 
The findings give credence to allegations that the men and women in uniform charged with enforcing the law, protecting and securing the public, are partly behind the surging wave of robberies, thefts and also general crime in the country.
The fact that the police Force is infested by criminals has on several occasions been raised by no lesser than President Museveni, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, including the police. 
Mr Museveni has repeatedly asked police chief Kale Kayihura to clean his house of criminals. 
When the army recently arrested and charged senior policemen over arresting and deporting Rwandan dissidents, speculation was rife that President Museveni had run out of patience with Gen Kayihura's perceived inaction and tasked the army to step in.
Apart from arresting top policemen, the army has also since arrested Mr Abdallah Kitatta and his associates in the Boda Boda 2010 outfit, an organisation accused of perpetrating a number of crimes while enjoying a unique closeness top police bosses. 
The latest poll by research firm, Afrobarometer, revealed that one in two Ugandans feel less safe, with almost half of the respondents (47 per cent) having had something stolen from their home in the year (2016) preceding the study.
The police, for unexplained reasons, ceased issuing the Annual Crime and Traffic Report about five years ago, with the public having to rely on various police department reports and other studies.
Article 211(3) of Constitution (1995) as amended states that the "Uganda Police Force shall be nationalistic, patriotic, professional, disciplined, competent and productive; and its members shall be citizens of Uganda of good character.
Article 212 of the same Constitution spells out the functions of the Force as to protect life and property, to preserve law and order, to prevent and detect crime; and to cooperate with the civilian authority and other security organs established under the Constitution and with the population generally. The million dollar question is whether the Force is fully upholding these responsibilities as enshrined in the Constitution.
In October, nine people, among whom are five senior police officers, were charged before the Makindye-based Court Martial in Kampala for allegedly kidnapping Rwanda president Paul Kagame's former bodyguard, extortion, murder, operating private cells and orchestrating armed robberies.
The officers are former Commandant of Police Professional Standard Unit, Senior Commissioner of Police Joel Aguma; Senior Superintendent of Police Nixon Agasirwe; former commander of Police Special Operations, Sgt Abel Tumukunde under the Flying Squad; Assistant Superintendent of Police Magada under Crime Intelligence; and Faisal Katende under the Flying Squad.
In August 2017, for example, it emerged that the raid on the Central Police Station, Kampala, in which guns and ammunition were stolen, was an insider job involving police officers in connivance with thugs. 
Both Kampala Metropolitan police commander Frank Mwesigwa and a report by the police's Professional Standards Unit (PSU) alluded to the same. 
PSU, among other things, handles complaints from the general public concerning the "misconduct" of police personnel.

Police hire out guns
The incident also gave weight to accusations that rogue police officers hire guns to criminals who in turn share their loot. Two suspects were picked from Iganga and six police officers were arrested as a result of the break-in that shocked the country.
"Those are isolated incidents," says Mr Vincent Ssekate, the PSU and Directorate of Criminal Investigations spokesperson. He, however, says that PSU takes action whenever there is a case involving a police officer.
"All cases where our officers are involved, we have investigated and made recommendations to the legal department, some are in court and others with HR [Human Resource Directorate] with recommendations for action," Mr Sekate says.
Like Uganda, neighbouring Kenya also suffers a similar problem. It is common for officers to be shot by their colleagues at crime scenes when the two groups find themselves at either side of the law.

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