Not everything Gen Kale Kayihura did was wrong

From the President to the ordinary Ugandan, there has been a chorus of criticisms and allegations of criminality within the Uganda Police Force.
With the latest changes in the ministerial and police command, many Ugandans breathed a sigh of relief that there will be a dramatic shift away from those who had been presiding over the police comfortably and ignoring the President’s frustration by incompetence, connivance and actual participation in commissions of crimes.
The worst talk about police crimes was the practice of conniving with suspects who were arrested or charged with crimes but had money to pay for the compromises which in effect obstructed any further investigations and caused files to be closed.

Many Ugandans were delighted that a professional and long-serving police officer in Mr Martins Okoth-Ochola was appointed to replace Gen Kale Kayihura as Inspector General of Police. I personally sent IGP Ochola a letter of congratulations.
However, discussing my congratulations with friends and other people, I have been warned that my congratulations were misplaced because the police shortcomings, including police officers committing crime without any action being taken, are firmly part of today’s policing system that is beyond Mr Ochola’s capacity.
Limited research suggests that this view is correct. There is a belief that Ochola will fail to dismantle what Kayihura built and that he is a mere shadow behind the throne.

Initially, Kayihura started well. He restructured the police command, appointed and deployed professionals to train police cadets. In fact, I was one of them. He disciplined culprits severely and gave regular interviews and discussed police affairs publically. Theoretically, all this restored some confidence in the police.
However, all this crumbled in 2005 when presidential term limits were removed. Kayihura shifted loyalty from serving the country, the people and law to a strange philosophy of serving a political party and its leadership; from God to Caesar. It is from then that the police began to serve the interests of individual leaders instead of Ugandans.

Suspicions
IGP Ochola has been part and parcel of the same brand of governance and policing under Kayihura’s reign, meaning he could be loyal to the government of the day and will always regard himself as subordinate to a military command, which view is in conflict with the Constitution.
Has any Ugandan heard any comment about police from dear Ochola? With few exceptions, in Africa deputies are supposed to be silent and say nothing on anything touching governance.
The exceptions include the recent events in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Vice presidents there were heard publically criticising their bosses and their governments on policies and acts which they regarded as anti-people or illegal.

No wonder their populations jubilated when correct politics propelled them to replace their former bosses and they are now in charge of the destinies of their countries.
The first wrong IGP Ochola has committed is what was headlined in the Daily Monitor of Tuesday, March 20, “Ochola reverses, Kayihura’s transfers”.
The reversal was a mistake. It was made too hurriedly before Ochola could ascertain thorough investigations and in consultation with his predecessors, the police commission, among others.

Following the transfers, many citizens and police officers were happy and jubilated because of the wrongs the transferees had committed or participated in their areas of jurisdiction. They are now petrified by the prospect of the transferees return.
However, there is a school of thought in the public that he has been pressured to do so by the transferees and their accomplices in wrongdoing.
If the rumour is true, it is unfortunate. To add to Ochola’s pressures, many Ugandans think that he has been appointed to be a head shadow of the real power behind the police, namely his deputy Sabiiti Muzeyi. Time and actions will tell.

Prof Kanyeihamba is a retired Supreme Court judge.
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