100 days: Ochola picking up pieces

What you need to know:

  • Changed yet the same. Whereas the new IGP has enacted some changes within the Force, some observers and analysts see the changes as symbolic and unlikely to cause sufficient reform in the institution.

Kampala.

The first 100 days of Martins Okoth-Ochola (OMO) at the helm of the Uganda Police Force passed quietly and were largely unnoticed with June 11 marking the same since he was appointed. Add another 11 days of his inauguration, and June 22, yesterday, became the real end of Ochola’s first 100 days in office.
The uneventful turn could be tagged on Mr Ochola’s style of work. Unlike his predecessor, embattled Gen Kale Kayihura, he has shown less appetite to appear before the cameras and even engage the media.
He has opted out of making public declarations and turning up at crime scenes faster than the actual investigators.
But even with seeming public encouragement and support, little has changed in terms of the problems bedeviling the Force, with business seemingly remaining as usual.
Ugandans continue to live in fear of crime. Take at least last month, and a quick review illustrates the predicament of the post-Kayihura Force under OMO, as the Inspector General of Police is colloquially known.
Besides the annual routine Budget reading, most of the major events that have happened in the country in the same period relate to the police and the attendant insecurity in the country.

Not yet good news
His former boss, Gen Kayihura and a dozen other senior police officers are under detention ostensibly for complicity in executing or covering up high level crimes that include kidnaps, killings, extortion, to mention but a few.
Many others are on the run, while many more are under investigation by military intelligence. This, more than anything else, fulfils the old adage that fish rots from the head. Curiously, only in February, weeks before his sacking, Gen Kayihura had dismissed accusations that the Force was rotten at the top.
“The rot in police is from the bottom, but for me as a commander on top, I am still very clean. I am on the operation to build police afresh, starting with Mubende. I have suspended these officers and I promise I am bringing you angels who will work,” Gen Kayihura told residents of Mubende, who had complained about police commanders aiding land grabbing.
President Museveni was on June 20, compelled, in a rare move, to address the nation through Parliament on the security situation in the country in the face of kidnaps and brutal gun killings that have rocked the country, but also a general state of fear and panic that has left citizens helpless in the face of rising crime.
Most of the measures Mr Museveni laid down, including installation of CCTV cameras on all roads, streets, highways, construction of a modern forensic laboratory, reviving the police 999 hotline and revamping the police Flying Squad with improved capabilities to tackle crime, monitoring social media users and beefing up security at borders to check potential sneaking in of guns using porous border points, all touched on the police.
Symbolic steps?
Since taking over as IGP, Mr Ochola has enacted some changes within the Force, including undertaking reshuffles of both senior police officers, reversed some orders by his predecessor, streamlined some police departments such as the Directorate of Crime Intelligence and Investigations, officially shut down the notorious Nalufenya detention centre, made directives on discipline, management of firearms, traffic police, dress code and observance of human rights.
While commendable, some observers and analysts see the changes as symbolic and unlikely to cause sufficient reform in the force.
Police under Mr Ochola is, also, yet to pass a “real” political test, especially in how the Force will deal with the interests of the incumbent and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
Under Gen Kayihura, the police could easily be described as an extension of the ruling NRM and played a key role in ensuring President Museveni’s victory in 2006, 2011 and the 2016 general elections.
In other elections and political activities, the long arm of the Force would be deployed to bolster the ruling party’s position and Gen Kayihura was never shy in projecting his role “as enforcer in chief” of the ruling party.
Mr Ochola could pass or fail the test in the forth-coming elections in new districts and other administrative units. The biggest test, however, will come in the Local Council elections, especially the much awaited election of village chiefs on July 10, less than a month away.
Will the police look on and only intervene to enforce law and order, fairly, even in the face of an NRM defeat? Will it be business as usual?
For insights on how this is likely to play out, one only needs to consider the continued detention over unclear circumstances of Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze Bakireke beyond the 48 hours despite her deteriorating health condition and need to travel for further treatment.
Police under Gen Kayihura, also currently under detention in violation of the same, was not only notorious for violation of this provision but was openly advocating for its scrapping.
Even as IGP Ochola and his team work to improve the image of the police through largely “symbolic reforms”, the unsettled debate is whether these would answer the fundamental questions about policing in Uganda and whether the same should come from within or outside the police, the players, and under what conditions will they be deemed sufficient.
It all boils down to what needs to happen for some form of “real reform” to happen in the Force so that it can be a “pro-people, non-partisan and professional Force” as argued by Nicholas Opiyo, a human-rights lawyer and Maria Burnett, the director for East/Horn of Africa at Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a joint statement published on June 4 by HRW.

Call for overhaul
Different groups and individuals have over time called for the overhaul of the police, with varying suggestions on how it can be done.
The last such attempt to overhaul the Force was in 2001, following an inquiry by Justice Julia Sebutinde, who had recommended the action following an inquiry into among others corruption, mismanagement and abuse of office in the institution. Only a few of her recommendations were implemented.
Overhauling the police will entail into focusing it to becoming rights respecting, accountable Force. Ugandans will, for example, be watching to see if the ongoing screening of police officers will weed out the corrupt and human rights abusers and turn the institution into a pro-people entity.
The systems of the Force could also be put under review with a view of abolishing redundant sections and the deployment of more personnel to operational duties, including transferring top officers to sections where their expertise is best suited.
The duo, Burnett and Opiyo, challenged IGP Ochola to disband all “unregulated” paramilitary outfits, including Kiboko Squad, the Boda Boda 2010, Crime Preventers, Kifeesi and others associated with the Force as part of the reform process lest “his reign, like that of his predecessor, will be blighted”.
“Okoth-Ochola and his senior commanders also need to conduct an effective, transparent investigation into these groups’ past conduct with a view to prosecuting their personnel who committed serious crimes,” the statement reads in part.
Such an investigation, the duo argue, would send a strong message by the police leadership that they disapprove of such unlawful acts and that they will not tolerate future abuses.
Further, they call for the establishment of an independent police oversight body, an entity with powers and authority to police the police.
“The Professional Standards Unit (PSU) and the Police Disciplinary Court have demonstrated that they are unable to meaningfully hold abusive police to account. These institutions have become either avenues to take vindictive actions against junior police officers or to circumvent criminal prosecutions by using an administrative process to deal with criminal acts,” the two argue.
Overhauling the police will also have to take into account strengthening the intelligence capabilities of the institution, with capabilities akin to the disbanded Special Branch. This will beef up the Force’s capacity to deal with, for example, gun smuggling and misusing rackets.
The Force will also need stricter gun control measures and to develop specialised capacity in one of its units to probe illegal firearms and manage the firearms registry.
Among the reforms, there are suggestions that the Force, working with different government departments such as the Inspectorate of Government (IGG), can undertake a lifestyle audit. A lifestyle audit involves verification of a person’s expenditure patterns to determine if it is consistent with an individual’s sources of income that include salary and other allowances.
Vetting and lifestyle audits could be an effective way of removing rogue officers within the system as police fights to regain its dented credibility.