Lt. Gen Kale Kayihura
Kindly allow me to write to you a large posting for it is the only way I
can make my point as I focus on the future Policing in our country. Uganda
is soon going to be 50 years independent, and I know that you are busy
setting up your shopping list for the gifts you will give Ugandans at that
anniversary, so this writing is intended to help you in your shopping, take
it as a wish from EM in Toronto as his wish for a gift to reach 50 years of
independence. And I am only asking for two changes in the entire Police
force of our country.
1} You have stated many times that you have started a partnership system in
Uganda based on community policing, I fully support that action and we are
actually late for many countries have already walked that path. I however
have a problem understanding how that system will succeed when you still
have Police Officers in barrackses. When the colonial masters arrived in
Africa way back, they created a system of them Vs. us, so to work in a
Police Force you only qualified due to your height your strength and sex.
Women were not allowed for the white masters wanted you to go into the
Africans arrest those that anti whites and bring them to the white masters
to be tried and punished. When you qualified as a Police Officer then you
were isolated from the community for now you are an attack Dog of the
masters. It is very bothering that Uganda is going to celebrate its 50 years
of independence when we still have Police Barackses which are a true
colonial masters signature. Although you are building that partnership, as
long as a Police Officer is isolated from the population, the perception is
going to remain that it is a force of the government to go after the tax
payers.
And you have very many advantages if you allow them to live in community,
they get to know the problems facing the community for they truly live into
it, they get to know how best community needs to be policed for they are
policing their own suburbs, you release a whole lot of land that you are
today holding much of which is a prime land in towns and cities, You save
from your budget the money you use to house them, you allow Police Officers
to use their salaries for housing as teachers engineers Doctors and so on
do. You save them from getting packed up in housing that is many times
unlivable, you allow them to develop independent wealth than dying when they
have no basic ownerships for example a living home. The advantages are quite
enormous. And it is the economic gains of both the Police Officer and the
government its self. To archive this you need to restructure the entire
system so that you build only Police Stations that are only a single
building, with a little jail for Policing is not prison but to hold a
suspect for a maximum one night. So a Police officer comes from Bweyogerere
where he rents a home or built a home, he shows up to Jinja Road Police
Station, he signs in and puts on his uniform, sign his weapon and walk the
streets. At the end of the day he walks back to the station, return his
weapon his uniform and he goes home as any other Uganda employee. Which
brings me to my wish number two.
2} Uganda is a very small country, about a third of Ontario Province but it
has a population larger than the entire Canada, but so is our culture. We
need to dismantle a whole lot of things in the Policing structure. Policing
is a local matter, so the way you police in Karamoja is not the way you
Police in Luwero let alone in West Nile. I have always questioned why we
need a Ministry of Internal Affairs when actually what it is doing must be
covered by The Ministry of Local administration. So I am calling on
transferring Police Services and Prison Services to Ministry of local
administration. I am calling on putting Policing and prison matters under
direct control of the city mayors. For the following reason.
a} When you create a single Police/Prison Force under one command I
question the ability of the Inspector General reaching a Police Officer in
Zeu Police Post in Arua as well as Koboko Police Post. And this goes the
other way around, for example how can a Police woman in Zeu reach you if she
needs your protection on her job? It is simply too huge and too un
organized.
b} Since Policing is a local matter the local population must be allowed to
create the laws they need in their locale than being created by the
Government in Kampala to be enforced by their local Police Stations all over
the country.
c} There are cities that are rich, for example Mukono as a city can have its
money that it can decide on what uniform they want their Police Officers to
wear, than getting a decision from Kampala of what they can wear, they can
decide what kind of cars their force can drive than being decided by
Kampala, they can decide what kind of jails they can use instead of being
decided by Kampala. They can fine traffic offences in their own jurisdiction
by finning traffic offenders than Kampala that honestly send traffic
offenders to Luzira which should never happen in any jurisdiction.
d} Cities can raise the money to run these Police units than waiting on a
Kampala budget that many times is under budget and misused due to corruption
we have in the country
e} When I look closely at the running battles in Uganda, one can sense a
buildup of people thinking this is a governments officer and a governments
car it is not ours, if the people use their taxes to buy those cars and to
train those officers, it raises a belief that this is our car and our Police
Officer, thus a mutual respect develops on both ends.
f} If we allow these powers to go to the mayors, but we allow the political
parties to go after those positions, campaigns can be carried out and
elections held, we can get political parties to develop than sitting in
Kampala as if that is the only place they can develop let alone practice
politics.
g} The city mayors will be empowered to run strong cities thus creating jobs
in their locales and that fits in Uganda a country that really needs jobs,
for if the cities do policing, they do urban planning they do lands and
surveys, surely they get all that expertise from the current schools and
stop to make Kampala a ghetto where every un employed squats to feed on
Police running battles.
h} The cities will be allowed to recruit promote or demote fire and
discipline their Police Officers due to good or bad services built on what
kind of account they have generated in their own cities. They should be able
to build retirement packages for their officers and it should be built by
cities and officers contributing into them.
This list is quite endless but let me not tire you, the point remaining is
that it is good for all of us. Let me clarify two points here. I do not want
to be misunderstood that I am defending federalism, for if Policing Uganda
as a one unit is impossible so is policing Buganda as a single unit. What I
am looking at is cities in areas as for example structured out under Iddi
Amins provinces. So the leader of that region gets elected and a city mayor
gets elected and people get allowed to run their own affairs. Secondly no
sir I am not here to go after your job, for we will need an overall command
to set up the minimum standards required in training and enforcement, that
can be done in Kampala. We can also leave the training in Kampala, and
Kampala can turn around and charge the cities for that training, so the
cities will recruit their own people and send them in at a fee for training,
so instead of your office looking for the money from the government it looks
at the regions for the money, and every one remains happy. There are areas
that will be unable to fund these new arrangements I will also leave those
to you to be policed as well.
As everyone is sending you his wish list for the present of 50 years of
independence, the two points I have raised in my submission will go a great
way to make me celebrate the 50 years of independence. We are running very
late for after 50 years of independence these changes should have been
already implemented in Uganda.
And I thank you.
EM
On the 49th
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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