Army to retrain crime preventers
Lt Col Bright Rwamirama
The State Minister for Veteran Affairs, Lt Col Bright Rwamirama has said that the UPDF plans to retrain crime preventers who have been absorbed from police to the Reserve Force.
He said the training will help them to choose those who are fit to join the force.
Lt Col Rwamirama told MPs on the Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs on Tuesday that the army is working on modalities to ensure that crime preventers who would join the Reserve Force do so legally.
Lt Col Rwamirama was part of the team of Ministry of Defence officials who were presenting their budget estimates for the 2018/19 financial year.
This was after MPs tasked Lt Col Rwamirama, to specify the law under which crime preventers are operating.
He said the UPDF has no instructions to recruit the crime preventers as full-time soldiers but only to keep them under the Reserve Force with no financial implication.
In March, President Yoweri Museveni, while meeting crime preventers who were recruited by former Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, announced that they would be absorbed into the Reserve Force of the UPDF.
Lwemiyaga MP, Mr Theodore Ssekikubo questioned Mr Museveni’s pronouncement.
According to Mr Ssekikubo, the crime preventers lack the basics to be associated with the Reserve Force of the army.
Gen Kayihura recruited them reportedly to help police detect and fight crime in their localities.
However, they were on several occasions accused by Opposition groups of helping the ruling National Resistance Movement to curtail their political activities.
Earlier, Butambala County MP Muwanga Kivumbi questioned how the army would pay the over 12 million crime preventers, train them, and ensure that they don't turn into a rogue force.
Mr Gilbert Olanya, the Kilak County MP, said the UPDF is having its professional image “spoilt” since crime preventers do not meet the basic requirements to serve under the Reserve Force.
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