Transforming Police into a modern force with proper ideological orientation and technical capabilities
Even as we keep receiving commendation from well informed quarters over our duties which we have discharged satisfactorily in spite of limited resources and deliberate disruption of the peace by some people who are bent on achieving their objectives using unlawful means, we still need to take stock of our preparedness for and capabilities to counter new security threats that pose danger to our people. How do we enhance our capabilities in the medium term? Where has our performance been wanting? What adjustments do we need to make?
Transforming Police into a modern force with proper ideological orientation and technical capabilities
Even as we keep receiving commendation from well informed quarters over our duties which we have discharged satisfactorily in spite of limited resources and deliberate disruption of the peace by some people who are bent on achieving their objectives using unlawful means, we still need to take stock of our preparedness for and capabilities to counter new security threats that pose danger to our people. How do we enhance our capabilities in the medium term? Where has our performance been wanting? What adjustments do we need to make?
Besides the newer crimes like terrorism, human trafficking, drug dealing and cybercrime, armed robberies are also still with us and even with falling crime rates being registered, we need to reduce them further and aim at having a crime-free society.
There is also an increase in sexual violence and sex related crimes. Defilement is still a serious problem. Another phenomenon that is on the rise is violence against men. I am getting so many reports of men being battered by their wives. Worse still, many men are now living in fear of being killed by their wives in connivance with their sons so as to take their property. Many young men are impatient to sell off their family land to acquire items like boda boda, and it is the fathers who are standing in their way. At this rate we might need to develop protection programme for such endangered men.
Drug trafficking is set to become worse in face of very ineffective laws. Uganda is not only an easy transit centre for international drug trafficking but is also a growing market for consumption. But the traffickers easily get off with a light fine of one million shillings when found with narcotics worth hundreds of millions of shillings. They do not even get the light sentence of six months because they are given the option of paying the token one million compared to gravity of their offence.
The proliferation of small arms and light weapons through our porous borders is still a major threat. Only recently URA intercepted a container that had guns in it. We need to invest in better scanning capacity for transit goods. Or we need to examine the synergies that exist with other agencies for specialized capabilities.
Another important area where we need to build stronger capability is immigration policing. The immigration services are vital for the security of this country especially now with the heightened international crimes like human trafficking, drugs trafficking and terrorism. We need to support the capacity of the immigration services.
Cyber crime as you are all aware is on the increase. The more digital technology improves the more the criminals take advantage of it and it is the duty of the police to also build its capability and keep ahead of the criminals. Our ICT directorate must provide the lead in that and let us analyse any challenges they face.
But to make all these possible, we must not relent on our role to protect the country’s economy and financial resources. In this regard, we need to also focus on the corruption in local government especially at the district level. While police has cracked some high profile and big time embezzlement rackets in central Public Services, we need to focus more effort at the resources that are meant to deliver services to the people but get misappropriated in the local governance system.
We need to get more value for money budgeted for our development projects. I am already encouraged by the construction work done in house by our own construction unit. You know the work they have done building in Northern Uganda using hydrafoam technology.
Aware that our officers work under difficult circumstances with relatively low salaries, we must immediately adopt some strategies to get more out of the limited resources. In this regard we are immediately embarking on food production. We must grow the food at least to feed the trainees at Kabalye.
We must also operationalise the housing mortgage scheme for the benefit of especially our young officers. I am encouraging all officers to join the police SACCO. For while membership and participation in the SACCO is voluntary, it is an important vehicle through which members’ welfare can be enhanced through different programmes that are being instituted. So it is to every officer’s advantage to join and be active in the SACCO.
We also are soon setting up the best medical insurance scheme for the police. It will be the model health insurance in the country. So all health providers in the country are being put on notice that the health package scheme to beat is about to take off.
I wish you all a successful closure of the year and a safe festive season. Let us all be alert and celebrate responsibly so that the joy of Christmas does not end in tears for some.
