Police infiltrated by weevils, says Museveni

President Museveni has said the police has for long been infiltrated by criminals he preferred to call “weevils” who made it hard to fight crime, but implied the public should expect a better Force in times ahead.
He made the statement in Luganda language, which in literal translation, implies “The criminals can be arrested but the hindrance has been that police has been infiltrated by bean weevils (criminals); we shall get them.”

The President was speaking at celebrations to mark the International Women’s Day in Mityana District.
Although he did not name the “weevils” Mr Museveni said laxity among security forces to deal with criminals had led to the rampant killings in the country but insisted that will now be solved.
He did not state what new measures he is putting in place to eliminate the “weevils” from the police but last Sunday the President made changes in the police leadership, firing Gen Kale Kayihura as Inspector General of Police and replaced him with his deputy Martin Okoth Ochola.

Criminals in police
At the funeral of former police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi in March last year, President Museveni said police had been infiltrated by criminals and directed the then head of police Gen Kayihura to eliminate them.

However, criminals continued to wreak havoc and terror on the population, the latest incident being the murder of Susan Magara, who was kidnapped on February 7 and her body was later recovered on Entebbe Road after about 20 days in hostage. Last year, criminals ran riot and killed more than 20 women in Entebbe and Nansana municipalities, Wakiso District, in less than three months until the military intervened.
Mr Museveni yesterday said for long government had been dealing with terrorists and rebels, who have been eliminated. He said the government will now focus on urban criminals.

“We have defeated terrorism and it shall not come back. It’s now that we have the problem of criminals in town because of the big numbers of people, big numbers of cars and many phones. These are now easy to deal with and we shall sort that out,” the President said.
He also blamed courts and prison officials for removing handcuffs off criminal suspects when they appear for trial.
His statement was in reference to last week’s incident when two murder suspects escaped from court in Masaka.
The President wondered how the courts can allow suspects to walk in court without handcuffs.

“I hear the Prisons saying that the court rules do not allow the suspects to be brought to court without handcuffs. Who made these rules? I have been in the government for 30 years and I never made these rules, so who made them?” the President charged.
He said some of the criminals implicated various murders are already in jail but and more who are still on the run will be arrested.
“We are still hunting a few of them who are still on the run. The problem is that the police has been rotten. The criminals who murdered people in Masaka during Christmas were arrested and I was personally involved in hunting them and we got them but unfortunately, two of them escaped in court. The criminals who murdered people in Entebbe were also arrested,” Mr Museveni said.

“The only problem we have is the town murders and it’s like looking for a needle in the forest. We are going to look for the criminals who have started kidnapping the children and asking for money,” he added.
Mr Museveni also stressed that every big town in Uganda should have Closed Camera television (CCTV) to see those who commit crime.
He said with CCTV, a person can be in Kampala and see someone in Mityana, Kiboga, Jinja and other big towns.

Warns men against battering women.
The President also had no kind words for men, who beat their wives, warning that they will be dealt with.
“Why do you beat women? Why do you beat someone who is already weak? If you want to fight, go and look for someone who is strong like you and you compete. I will never allow you to beat my sister, my daughter or my relative. I think such people must be arrested,” he charged.

Women face hard challenges
He said women face hard challenges because they are not economically empowered. He said the next move to achieve women emancipation is by educating them to earn a living.
“We need to educate these girls and women. We need to make them economically independent so that these girls do not go into marriages for economic survival, but to ensure that they are able to stand on their own,” he said.

He said women should not over-depend on men because such dependence makes them vulnerable to abuse by men.
“The NRM government has tried to bring the programmes aimed at developing women such as the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship programme, where more than 430,000 women have benefitted,” he said.

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