125 police officers demoted over buying ranks

The Police have demoted 125 non commissioned Officers who were promoted late last year for allegedly buying ranks from senior police officers.

The demotion follows an investigation by the Police Professional Standards Unit that found out that there was corruption in the promotion of junior officers last year. A non-commissioned officer is a police officer below the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police.

Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba has confirmed the demotion of the officers.
“There are 125 officers who have been demoted and they are of lower ranks,” Ms Nabakooba said on Tuesday.

However, another 200 Constables have been promoted to the rank of Corporal to replace the demoted officers.

Daily Monitor broke the story last year which led to the arrest of three police officers in the human resource management and development directorate were arrested on allegations of corruption.

The investigations found out that some officers were favoured or paid bribes ranging from Shs200,000 to Shs500,000 to some officers in the human resource department to get promotions.

At 7,000 Non Commissioned Officers were promoted in the recent promotion, the biggest in the history of the Uganda Police Force.

In the most recent promotions, more than 1000 police officers were promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector of Police and Inspector of Police.

Another 224 corporals were promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector of Police while 12 corporals were elevated to the rank of Inspector.

Over 807 sergeants were endorsed to the rank of Assistant Inspector but 20 of their colleagues skipped that rank to become Inspector.