Has Kayihura ‘repented his sins’ to get a fourth term?

Gen Kayihura faces Parliament should Museveni forward his name. PHOTO by Faiswal Kasirye

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Power. As the police boss prepares for another term in office, Sunday Monitor’s Mike Ssegawa analyses the police chief’s record and chances of reappointment.

Two weeks ago, the Police Authority gave the President the green light to give police chief, Gen Kale Kayihura, a fourth term. However, that only opened a grueling process Gen Kayihura is going to be subjected to before he earns another term.
It is now up to President Museveni to forward his name to Parliament’s vetting committee. And the Appointments Committee will have the final say on whether the four-star general returns to office or not.
Given there is an upcoming election in less than 15 months from today, the President is not the major hindrance to Gen Kayihura’s fourth shot as IGP.
It is, however, Parliament whose image has been tainted in the recent past as a rubber-stamping organ for Museveni’s machinations.

President Museveni is yet to send Kayihura’s name to the Speaker, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, who chairs Parliament’s Appointments Committee.
The last time Gen Kayihura was there to seek his current term, it was not a walk in the park.
November 2011 was a hard month for the Inspector General of Police. After serving for six years, the then Major General came under intense criticism for the gross violations of human rights. This was an addition to the only shattered image of the police as a corruption-ridden force.
Legislators were fresh from images of police officer Gilbert Bwana Arinaitwe who in April 2011 had sprayed Col Kizza Besigye with pepper in the eyes in an act of overzealousness, almost getting the then opposition leader, blind. Dr Besigye was to be flown to Nairobi for specialised treatment to regain his full sight.

The year 2011 had started with an election that President Museveni won comfortably. But that did not stop demonstrations that followed over the high cost of living and escalating inflation.

Teargas was the order of the day in the course of “Walk to Work” as protestors who wanted the government to do something about the stubborn inflation, which had made commodity prices out of reach for many households, took to the streets.
At the close of that year, legislators waited for him, and wanted him blocked from re-appointment. He sought forgiveness and promised to do better.
The reason the NRM-dominated committee gave for granting the IGP another term was in the words of Haruna Kyeyune Kasolo (Independent, Kyotera County), to give him a chance to “repent for his sins”.

He added: “We are all human beings and we make mistakes,” Mr Kyeyune told the Daily Monitor of November 9, 2011.
Despite a ruling NRM party dominated committee, however, Kayihura’s name passed through an eye of the needle to earn the term that is ending on November 10, this year.

The question
The question now is, has Kayihura reformed the police to keep law and order, and protected lives and property of Ugandans? Or, is it still that brutal animal terrorising citizens?
Breaking Opposition rallies with teargas is no longer on anyone’s radar but the sights of Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and Dr Kizza Besigye behind cells, denied right to movement and association, are not long ago.
As Kayihura waits for another turn in Parliament to defend his position, there are more serious questions around the conduct of the IGP in the past three years.

In the last vetting, Opposition Members of Parliament distanced themselves from the approval of the police chief.
In the words of the then Opposition Leader in Parliament, Mr Nandala Mafabi, “As Opposition members on the Committee, we want to make it clear to the rest of Ugandans that we didn’t approve Gen Kayihura’s re-appointment.”
Mr Mafabi added: “The NRM members on the Committee used voice- voting to have him approved but not the Opposition. How can we approve a person who has presided over a Force that has brutalised our people, killed babies and imprisoned our members on politically tramped-up charges?”

“We put our case especially on human rights abuses, unfair promotions in Police Force, militarisation of the Police Force, Arinaitwe who wanted to kill Dr Besigye and the excessive use of force against unarmed civilians,” he said.
“We also made it clear that the RRU should be disbanded; it has turned into a precarious group terrorising our people. Unfortunately, our views were defeated by the NRM members on the Committee,” Mr Mafabi said.

Another question
The other question is: Will the NRM members defend the IGP’s record?
It is clear the police chief machinations are blessed by the appointing authority and his sending his name to Parliament would once again prove the President’s pleasure with the way his IGP does his work.

For MPs who defended the IGP three years ago, they have to tell their colleagues: What has changed with Gen Kayihura’s leadership in police? And if anything has changed, is it for the betterment of the Force?
In the letter defending his desire for another term, IGP Kayihura told the Police Authority that he has posted good results including improving the welfare of the officers, and he had more pending work to do such as professionalising the Force.

It remains to be seen if it is only Gen Kayihura who can expedite the professionalisation of the police, a phase he says is critical for the Force. And he is right at that, much as the same can be asked of him, What has taken him this long to see the Force needs to be professionalised?

After nine years, Kayihura, now the longest serving police chief under Museveni, has a professional police for his Achilles heel. He has been accused of militarising the Force, which he recently defended, as needed in the prevailing times.
A section of the public has been critical on the police expenditure on terror operations and its large budget.
However, during a recent memorial lecture at Makerere University in honour of Uganda’s first black IGP Erinayo Oryema, panelists praised Kayihura for the positive attributes he has brought to the Force.

Among the achievements they pointed out was pushing for increased police funding from Shs71 billion to Shs400 billion in the past 10 years. They also gave kudos to Kayihura for building the police headquarters in Naguru and increasing the police numbers, which had seen even rural areas with officers.
To keep Uganda safe is within Kayihura’s mandate and at large he has done a good job. But what he cannot defend is his increased participation in politics.

The IGP in August this year admitted to doing political work. He told a Daily Monitor reporter in an exclusive interview that he was being political without being partisan.
The police chief, whose hand in political affairs - cracking Opposition rallies notwithstanding - came to the fore in the now infamous Kale-leaks in which Gen Kayihura was heard personally interviewing various youth about their involvement in mobilising for former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi in his bid for presidency. Mr Mbabazi would eventually warn the IGP for his activities and harassment of his supporters.
Another tape would feature Sulaiman Kidandala, the deputy Lord Mayor of Kampala, discussing politics of the capital city involving Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago.

Amama Mbabazi has since been fired and replaced by Dr Ruhakana Rugunda as Prime Minister. KCCA leadership is also pondering replacing the Lord Mayor with his estranged deputy, Kidandala. The two former comrades don’t see eye to eye since the meeting between the IGP in Masindi and Kidandala became public knowledge.

It is clear on which side the Opposition MPs will side in the Appointments committee. However, all eyes are on NRM committee members, some of whom, are loyal to their party’s secretary general.

With an Opposition bruised from the workings of the IGP, and an antagonised NRM group – whose secretary general is notorious for working underground - Gen Kayihura’s hurdles to the fourth term could already be drawn.
If he is approved, the mandate will give the police chief a ticket to hold the docket for another three years, including an election year.

About gen kayihura
Kayihura was born in Kisoro District on December 26, 1955. He has grown in military rank and held multiple offices in the army and public service such as:
As an Aide de Camp to the Commander of the Mobile Brigade, from 1982 to 1986.

As a Staff Officer in the Office of the Assistant Minister of Defence, from 1986 to 1988.
As Chief Political Commissar and simultaneous Director of Political Education in the National Resistance Army.
As the Operational Commander of the UPDF forces in Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo
As a Military Assistant to President Museveni.

In that capacity, he headed the Anti-Smuggling Unit, whose official name is Special Revenue Police Services.
He has served as IGP since 2005 when he replaced General Edward Katumba Wamala.

Police image
In July, the Human Rights Watch reported that the police was beating and abusing homeless children. This came hot on the heels of accusations of brutality by the Force. Police denied the allegations as baseless.