The Opposition has attacked President Yoweri Museveni for appointing four Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) officers as new Assistant Inspector General of Police, saying the move is aimed at militarizing the Police as the country heads into 2021 polls.
The Opposition Chief Whip, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda (in featured photo) says militarising of police isn’t beneficial to anyone including President Museveni who doing it because the military training is different from that of Police.
“The military is supposed to safe guard Uganda’s borders, whoever violates that is an enemy and the military deals with an enemy most of the time. Police is supposed to keep law and order all the time, unfortunately the things that Museveni would want police to do aren’t easy for Police to do that is why they would want the military to do those things,” Ssemujju said during a twitter session at Parliament today.
This is after President Museveni, who is also the Commander in Chief named Brig. Jack Bakasumba as Chief of Joint Staff for the Police while Chris Damulira, who has been the deputy CMI director for counter terrorism is now director of crime intelligence in the Uganda Police.
Brig Godfrey Goloba and Colonel Jese Kamunanwire have also been assigned to do Police work.
The appointments were confirmed by Brig Richard Karemire, the Spokesperson of Uganda People’s Defence Forces.
“Congratulations to the UPDF General and Senior officers seconded and appointed to various positions in the Uganda Police Force. UPDF remains available to support other agencies of govt in their quest to build capacity for the good of our country,” he twitted.
The four UPDF officers join Sabiiti Muzeyi, who is the Deputy Inspector General of Police whose appointment followed the firing of fellow military man, Kale Kayihura as IGP only to be replaced by Okoth Ochola.
Ssemujju argues that the move will disfranchise the Police officers and that will not solve the problem that has seen crime increase in the country because of Police’s concentration on regime protection.
“In a way, Museveni has been a victim of undermining the police because the moment you bring in the military, they will stand on the side and watch. As a result, you have seen crimes go up. The moment you concentrate on regime protection, you will have less time combating crime eventually that is what happens,” Ssemujju said.
He added: “I think both military and Police must be ashamed that you can have people in broad day staging robberies. So there is a total breakdown. You need to brace yourself for more difficulty as country.”
I strongly appreciate the government for involving UPDF in police because we have many military type of criminals using guns to steal and police alone may not handle them effectively. Our soldiers are learned these days and can act lawfully within police. Am praying for our leaders to continue keeping Uganda peaceful.