The Inspector General of police (IGP) Gen. Kale Kayihura yesterday 30th September 2015 passed out 345 officers upon completion of a seven months course at the non-commissioned officers’ academy (NCOA) in Jinja district.
The IGP reiterated that a training school is a factory for producing strength to be able to deal with security threats.
He appreciated the UPDF command for availing all their training infrastructure and personnel to help police build capacity noting that training is the backbone of the police force.
“Training is a command function, every commander must be interested in training, “said the IGP.
He added that capacity building has three elements; personnel, equipment and training. He explained that the force now has a total of 42,000 officers instead of 70,000.
“Training is a force multiplier because once you have good quality of personnel, they can compensate for the numerical inferiority,” explained the IGP.
He thanked government for equipping the Uganda police force to enable it execute its mandate.
“Since the last election, government has given us resources to acquire all sorts of equipment; armored personnel carriers (APCs), ambulances, fire vehicles, specialized vehicles as well as general duties vehicles,” said IGP.
The chief of training Brigadier Wills Byarugaba commended the IGP for training police officers. He noted that there is no way police can meet the current challenges of terrorism that are facing the whole world at the national level, regional and internal level without training.
“Terrorists are all armed and trained, so we cannot let our police which is supposed to provide security to be ill-trained and ill-equipped. It is on this note that we bring them here to give them shape in order to be superior to the current armed forces who are anti-people,” said Byarugaba.
He added that, “you are all aware that UPDF and police work together, in order to operate together, we must have equal training so that we can work together to challenge the situation that may arise”
The commandant NCOA Lt. Saad Katemba emphasized that trainings are intended to improve on the proficiency of the selected personnel in the conduct of their duties and developing professionalism in order to effectively respond to the ever evolving social, political and economic environment.
Accordingly, the director training AIGP Felix Kaweesi said that the officers’ basic course and the non-commissioned course are bridging courses suited for officers who have been holding ranks of command and leadership who were never prepared before promotions.
He appreciated IGP for elevating the department of training into a fully-fledged directorate.
“Without training, we don’t have a police force. We would like to declare our commitment that this envisioned value of a training, we are going to take it to the highest level as visioned,” emphasized Kaweesi.
In the year 2012, IGP took a decision as a head of the police council and promoted about 2000 non-commissioned officers and junior officers to respective ranks. There was therefore need to organize bridging courses to the benefit of the selected officers.
