Revive the special branch of Uganda Police Force

The way politics has evolved in Uganda in the last 50 years demands that President Museveni should, by all means, revive the Special Branch Department in the Uganda Police Force.

This is the department which will deal with politicians, as it was during the colonial times and after Independence, until it was abolished under this regime. This, in my view, was a wrong decision because the Criminal Investigations Department is now left to deal with hardcore criminals of all types as well as highly educated Ugandan politicians and leaders, who now include former presidential candidates.

On July 13, for instance, police officers and some men in civilian attire, for the second day in a row, brutally beat up supporters of former FDC presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye as they cheered and waved to him on Kampala streets.
The following day, July 14, the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, praised his police officers for beating up innocent citizens. He said the action of the police was sanctioned by the Force’s top command. However, Kayihura and the Force’s top command seem to have forgotten that flogging citizens of Uganda, a country governed under constitutional democracy, can cause a terrible political earthquake which can be very difficult to contain.

If the Special Branch Department still existed in Uganda Police Force, that kind of beating would not have happened because it would be handled by police officers specially trained to deal with politicians and their supporters.

The British established the Uganda Police Force in 1905 to keep peace in Uganda. In the years that followed, two factors emerged. First, the Ugandan society became more enlightened, because colleges and Makerere University were producing highly qualified people. There were also Ugandans who had received education as well as external exposure overseas.

Second, in the 1940s, African freedom fighters started serious political agitation and demands for freedom and Independence. Realising what was happening in the country, the British government decided to enlarge the police by forming the Special Branch Department solely to deal with Ugandan politicians.

Officers of the Special Branch Department had to undergo specialised training after completing the initial police training. The government at that time used to organise special courses in the United Kingdom for senior officers of the Special Branch Department. I remember this kind of training was intensified in the years leading to Independence.

Seminars were also organised by the government at Nsambya and Kibuli police training schools, in the Town Hall in Kampala or at Makerere University Main Hall for officers of the Special Branch Department to receive lectures by political experts from Makerere University and other institutions or from visiting senior police officers from the United Kingdom.

The idea was mainly to train and educate the Special Branch Department on how to handle people at a public political rally, and how to deal with people who are politically motivated and are marching on the streets. They never beat up peaceful and unarmed civilians. It was the work of the Special Branch Department to quell political riots or to handle workers who staged strikes and became violent. During those years, police never manhandled a politician as it happens today.

Finally, because Christianity brought education and civilisation, it is supposed to have eliminated the animal instinct in us. Therefore, the police must stop beating up people as if they are beating animals.

Kavuma-Kaggwa is an elder from Kyaggwe, Mukono District. 0772584423