Police housing cost inflated - IGP

KAMPALA. The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, has accused the Force’s logistics and engineering directorate staff of inflating the budget for building some 1,000 police housing units.
While speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction works, Gen Kayihura yesterday said the budget that director Godfrey Bangirana presented was bloated.
“This is not the budget I oversaw. This one is exaggerated. I can’t read this one for the public. You go and bring the budget that was approved by the Police Council,” the police chief said yesterday at the Naguru police barracks.
Although he gave no figures, an inside source said the cost had been increased by Shs3 billion and now stood at approximately Shs23 billion.
When asked about the alleged anomaly, Mr Bangirana told this newspaper on the sidelines of yesterday’s event, that: “I can’t contradict what the IGP has said. You have heard what he has said and you should go with that.”
Gen Kayihura said police have a deficit of 40,000 housing units, with Kampala Metropolitan in need of at least 10,000 houses for its officers.
The accommodation crisis has seen new police constables and officers posted, for example, to Nsambya Barracks in the city hammering iron sheets to poles for improvised shelter, filling whatever open spaces available between the colonial-type tenements.
Mr Mario Obiga Kania, the State Minister for Internal Affairs, said the government would build decent schools in police barracks across the country so that children of serving officers can access quality education. “After the construction of housing units, the government will be looking into the possibilities to educate all children of police officers. We shall build schools in every barracks,” the minister said.
Earlier, the IGP said he was going to convince the Police Council to allow officers at the rank of Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs), many of whom are graduates, to be accommodated in the new housing units because, according to him, their salary does not allow them to rent decent accommodation outside the barracks. “The current arrangement does not allow ASPs to sleep in the barracks yet their salary is not enough. They can’t afford renting good houses. I am going to speak to the Police Council to accommodate them in the barracks,” he said.
The planned 1,020 new housing units are to accommodate low-tier officers, ranging from police constables, corporals, sergeants, assistant inspectors, and inspectors. The units are expected to be completed within a year.

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