Aronda orders on firearms control

Internal Affairs minister Aronda Nyakairima (2nd R) and British High Commissioner to Uganda Alison Blackburne (2ndL) look on as officials examine boxes for storing guns in Kampala yesterday. PHOTO BY DOMINIC BUKENYA

Kampala- The Minister for Internal Affairs, Gen Aronda Nyakairima, has ordered security agencies to coordinate and ensure that all firearms in the country are marked and those not in use are properly stored.

“We don’t need to be told to control firearms. It is a must. The firearms, which a taxpayer has given us money to buy, the same taxpayer should not be there only to find that the rifles they bought are now used against them,” Gen Nyakairima said.

He made the call while receiving gun storage equipment worth Shs900m from the British government at the ministry headquarters in Kampala yesterday.

The equipment was handed over by Ms Alison Blackburne, the British High Commissioner.
Gen Nyakairima cited a story that ran in Daily Monitor yesterday of a crime preventer who allegedly shot dead a 16-year-old boy.

“I have been reading in the paper this morning of a terrible incident of a crime preventer in Mbale, killing a child with a rifle, a government rifle? The 100 items given to us are just a statement that you people still have an issue because after all, we still face crime and we must win this war against crime,” the minister said.

However, Gen Nyakairima said while storage was key, government was giving out arms to protect the masses and not to be kept.

“We are not going to give out arms for storing; we need them to guard the people. The arms that should be stored are those that are not used at any particular time,” he said.