The embattled Buyende District Police Commander, Muhammad Kirumira has announced his decision to retire from the Uganda Police Force. In a message posted on his Facebook page this morning, Kirumira says he has decided to resign from the force after realizing that his image will never change before his bosses.
The announcement comes days after the police leadership decided to drag Kirumira before the Police tribunal for the offenses he allegedly committed when he was in charge of Nansana Police Station in Wakiso district and Old Kampala Police Division in 2013 and 2014 respectively. He was charged with torture, extortion, corruption, bribery, unlawful arrests and excessive use of authority.
Prosecution alleges that Kirumira used his position to torture and extort money from civilians, charges the accused vehemently denies. Kirumira argues that the purpose of the dragging him before the disciplinary tribunal on criminal charges is to taint his reputation.
“Where are these are old tramped up charges, the police persistently kept on looking at me as a criminal and the purpose of this trial in an internal tribunal is to find ways of undermining my reputation,” reads Kirumira’s message.
Adding that, “As a senior officer who has labored to wipe out crime without any special facilitation, I have realized that my image before the administration shall never change and given the fact that I am still a young man. I have resigned from the force to enable the police court fulfill their motives.”
According to Kirumira, he now awaits a message communicating his replacement so that he can hand over office to whoever is deemed fit. “Eventually when the court makes the court makes its verdict I will put in my official retirement application to earn my discharge letter,” he said.
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Last June, President Yoweri Museveni grilled the country’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) over the transfers of certain police bosses.
Museveni who held a meeting with the IGP at the time, General Kale Kayihura was furious over the transfer of police officers in areas where they appeared to fight crime. He pointed out the transfer of Mohammed Kirumira.
Sources who attended the meeting reveal that Museveni demanded answers from the IGP as to why officers like Kirumira would be transfered at a time they appeared to be fighting crime.
Kirumira has on record and not once or twice, voiced displeasure to the fact that some police officers offer protection to the criminals. This is a fact Museveni highlighted while eulogising fallen Police spokesperson, Andrew Felix Kaweesi who was gunned down in March this year together with his driver and bodyguard.
we appreciate mr president