Police to register families in Kampala and Wakiso

Mr Asan Kasingye, the police spokesman

KAMPALA- Police on Monday announced that it would start registering homesteads in order to “increase neighbourhood vigilance” as part of renewed mechanism to fight crime.

Police spokesperson, Mr Asan Kasingye, said police have selected a team of officers who would be collaborating with local council chairpersons to ensure that members of every homestead are registered.

Mr Kasingye said the registration exercise would start in Kampala police Metropolitan area and crime-prone areas like Nansana and Entebbe in Wakiso District, where 20 women have been murdered in the last two months.

“This registration exercise starts in Entebbe and Nansana where murders are high,” Mr Kasingye told journalists at police headquarters in Kampala.

Police said the officers working alongside local leaders would move with registration forms on which community members would register their name, telephone numbers, occupation and contacts of their next of kin. 

“One leader and one coordinator will be identified to form a security team in every 10 households. This joint intervention is aimed at raising security awareness and vigilance,” he said.

However, Mr Nicholas Opio, a human rights advocate described police’s exercise as infringement on people’s right to privacy.

He wondered why police would conduct fresh registration of homesteads yet a similar exercise was conducted under the National Housing and Population Census in 2014.

“Generally speaking, the police have got the mandate to protect people and property. But police have got to work as part of government. The data they are collecting was already captured by the census. They should get data from them,” Mr Opiyo said.

Mr Opio warned that police is likely to face resistance because the public might be suspicious of the motive behind fresh registration.

Meanwhile, police have arrested two men suspected to have shot dead a German national, Remus Manifred, in Lugazi in Buikwe District last week. 

Mr Kasingye said the suspects were arrested at the weekend with a pistol suspected to have been used in the crime.