MPs were recently appalled by state of houses at Jinja police barracks.
A section of legislators have lashed out at Government’s failure to prioritise the construction of houses for the Police Officers, saying these has left the members of the force sleeping like goats and ducks.
The rebuke was made by Rose Obiga (DWR Terego) while interfacing with officials from Uganda Police Force who had been summoned by Parliament’s Human Rights Committee to respond to allegations made in the 2021 Annual Uganda Human Rights Report that cited the Force as top human rights violators.
Obiga cited the latest visit she paid at Nsambya Police barracks where she claimed that following the visit, she failed to eat and sleep because she was left traumatised and the situation isn’t any different from Naguru Police barracks.
“There are things like for ducks but you find human beings sleeping there. I know there is no money in this country but we can get money amidst nothing. How do you get money for Roko and Police are sleeping like goats? I wouldn’t buy that excuse. I am so disgusted with the way Police sleeps,” said Obiga.
In the report, the Uganda Human Rights Commission tasked the top management of Police to improve the accommodation of its officers who are trapped in dilapidated facilities and in their response, Christine Nanding, Deputy Director Legal and Human Rights Uganda Police said that currently, the Force is constructing apartments in Naguru but the national project to construct houses is hampered by the limited funding from Government.
Nanding explained, “This project is a multi-year and it is ongoing but it goes without saying, the government has been putting little, the challenge is that the little isn’t seen it is adrop, but it is really work in progress. There are structures being built across the country.”
She also revealed that the Nsambya Police barracks has been phased out and the Force is locked in talks with Ministry of Finance on how the project will be funded.
The development comes at the Police sought Parliament’s approval in November 2021, seeking to procure uniports for its newly recruited 10,000 officers at a cost of Shs70Bn.
According to Police, although the Force boosted its human resource with 10,000 recruits, there was no accommodation facilities earmarked for these recruits and in order to mitigate the crisis, there was need for funds to purchase classified stores commonly known as uniports and the contractor had asked for an advance payment of 30%.
The development came at the time Parliament’s Defence and Internal Affairs Committee was horrified to discover that although the 10th Parliament had recommended the Police housing units in Mbale be demolished, on onsite visit on Wednesday revealed that dilapidated structures still stand, having been constructed in 1954 by the colonial government.
For a long time, Parliament has been inundated with complaints from Police officers residing in barracks of no water and electricity supply over unpaid accumulated arrears.
