Government must handle armed groups effectively to safeguard our security

Since their coming to power in 1986, President Museveni and peers have sung the phrase “Kati mwebaka otulo” (loosely translated as “Now you can sleep”, an allusion to the peace, security and stability the former NRA now NRM brought to Uganda compared to the previous regimes. This is why occurrences of insecurity like the recent murders of former Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga, senior police officers Mohammad Kirumira and Andrew Felix Kaweesi, Muslim clerics, among others, leave President Museveni in awkward position.

However, would justice have been served if one attributes all the security gaps to the past regimes hence rendering President Museveni completely innocent? President Museveni himself confesses that Idi Amin ruled him for only one day after which he opted to fight him. Can anybody tell what would have happened if Amin’s government had not been fought? Similarly, despite the contestation of Obote’s election to presidency, Museveni took up arms against the Obote II elected government. That said, Museveni’s top agenda when he captured power was to bring the issue of insecurity to an end.

Undoubtedly, he has largely succeeded in this area. In the past, elderly men who lost their cattle to thieves adored the President for protecting the little that was left for them. Others who had for long experienced extra - judicial killings, assaults, abductions, unlawful arrests and property loss to soldiers of the past regimes, praised the God - chosen one. This, however, does not include northern Uganda, which has been shredded to tatters by the 23 years of the LRA insurgency. But generally, his 32 years rule can be described as relatively peaceful.

Unfortunately today, the relative peace is beginning to register reversals and Ugandans are more or less expendable. Question is, why should we, for example, respond to insecurity questions in Somalia, South Sudan, DRC and other African countries when we can’t fully guarantee security to Ugandans? Could this be a genuine regime failure. Knock your mind on this one.

Unnoticeably, Uganda’s security has been shrinking right from the inception of NRM. As we are aware, during the structural adjustment programme in the 1980s, a retrenchment exercise in the army, police and other security organs was conducted.
However, some of these security personnel were laid off without adequate resettlement plan. Then same regime started expanding by recruiting Local Defense Forces (LDUs) in ‘90s. There were also recruitment of Special Police Constables (SPCs), crime preventers in the 2000s, etc.

But all these personnel were later abandoned by the regime. Army veterans were joined by militia groups, including Boda boda 2010, the Kiboko Squad, etc.
This situation was worsened by duplication of roles to the extent that the chain of command was thrown into disarray. But where are many of these personnel and who is monitoring them? All these and more unanswered questions bring about security ambiguities.
And at the risk of being labelled a prophet of doom, unless these groups are handled well, they may become a national challenge in future
In the 1996 and 2016 general elections, President Museveni obtained very few votes in and around police barracks. Then in his speech at different national functions, President Museveni vowed to overhaul the Force.

Following high crime rate, including murders and high level of frustration from the public between 2016 and 2018, the President appointed Martins Okoth-Ochola as new IGP and Brig Sabiti Muzeyi as his deputy, to replace Gen Kale Kayihura, who is now facing charges of misusing his office, among other cases.

Ochola and Sabiti are now on a mission of reorganising the police force. Many senior officers are more ore less beginning to move in the same direction.
Otherwise, under Gen Kayihura, if you watched TV, listened to radio, read newspapers, or visited different senior offices, you would realise that the police were getting out of hand.

Mr Robert Nestrooy Kayongo is journalist. [email protected]