Murder suspect arrested with the help of K9/Police photo
The Uganda Police Force is seeking Shs4.968bn for the procurement of 750 sniffer dogs to expand the Force’s canine unit in order to fight crime in the country.
Documents tabled by Police before Parliament indicate that in the 2023/2024 National Budget Framework Paper, Uganda Police Force expansion of the canine unit through the acquisition of 750 dogs that would cost Shs4.968bn, but only Shs310M has been availed, leaving a funding gap of Shs4.658bn, that the Defence Committee has recommended to the Budget Committee to see to it that all these funds are availed to Police.
The request was fronted by Rosemary Nyakikongoro, Chairperson Parliament’s Defence and Internal Affairs while presenting the Committee’s report on the 2023/2024 National Budget Framework Paper before the Parliament’s Budget Committee.
“Investigations of crimes has a funding gap of Shs70.569bn to reduce congestion in prisons, addressing cattle rustling in Karamoja has been provided with Shs9.194Bn leaving a funding gap of Shs85.297Bn and acquisition of 750dogs under the canine unit requires an additional Shs4.658bn.”
This prompted Gorreth Namugga (Mawogola South) to task the Defence Committee to explain what the money will be used for asking, “You talked about, you want Shs4.6Bn to buy 750 dogs, but we all know the impact of the dogs on ground, you take a dog to you garden, you move some distance where someone undressed, they can’t detect. We also need to look at the impact of the dogs on ground because it is about crime detection. Do the dogs serve the purpose for which they were bought? And can you give us the cost of each dog?”
However, Nyakikongoro defended the budgets saying the animals are more costly in terms of feeding than humans and said there is need to have these dogs across all districts in Uganda and Police intends to spend Shs30M on each dog.
She explained, “This budget includes feeding, some of you have dogs, you know how much you spend on dogs, their budget is more than actually the people, it is just like that. I have that experience, the budget of dogs is more expensive than the family members. I think we need dogs in the districts because they have helped in the rural areas, in the urban areas because of the trespass, they spoil everything, but in the rural areas, they have helped.”
In the 2023/2024 National budget, Uganda Police Force has been allocated Shs823.728Bn, although the Force needs Shs2.902Trn, leaving a funding gap of Shs2.078Trn.
