Crush the ‘pigs’ but don’t lose your head

Bernard Tabaire

What you need to know:

  • Problematic. The govt’s proposed response is worrying. In his speech after the presentation of the national Budget on Thursday, President Museveni doubled down on problematic suggestions he has outlined before.

The arrest of scores of police officers over the last several months, culminating in this week’s confinement of the Force’s immediate former chief Kale Kayihura, suggests something has gone terribly wrong in the Uganda Police.
For those who care about civil and political liberties, it was horrifying to see police officers brutally break up Opposition rallies year after year. Many times journalists covering the gun butting and humiliation of Opposition politicians and their supporters got roughed up as well. They were beaten, their equipment broken or confiscated. It became routine. The chill was in the normalisation of inhumaneness by a State entity whose role is to enforce law and order.

The egregiousness of the thuggish behaviour now appears to have been extensive, covering areas that were not visible to the public eye. Whereas we saw the pepper-spraying of Dr Kizza Besigye and the use of water cannons and tear gas to break up rallies and meetings of opponents of the NRM government, we never saw Rwandan refugees handed over at the witching hour, off to an uncertain future.

It is possible that in scoring good points with President Museveni by suppressing the Opposition, the police leadership took ample liberties to engage in other unseemly activities betting that they could get away with it. Someone went classically rogue, endangering the good done while leaving the bad to shine a long time.

These things happen when you turn a key State institution into an instrument almost solely judged on how well it works to keep the sitting government in power.
To build on the Sebutinde Commission, which first systematically exposed criminality in the Uganda Police Force nearly two decades ago, the present moment offers another clean-up chance.

The new chiefs — IGP Okoth Ochola and his deputy Sabiiti Muzeyi — have already made some adjustments a couple of months on the job (at least so far they are not transferring officers monthly). It is said an office is as good (or as bad) as the holder. The two men are now in charge. They have to deliver a wholesale reform of the police. That is if they can sell and the boss — Commander in Chief Museveni — can buy their plan. Try they must.

When the law and order people lose their footing, deliberately or otherwise, part of the result is killings of wananchi where everyone is left none the wiser. The gunning down of MP Ibrahim Abiriga — a jolly good fellow despite some of his political positions — nine days ago typifies the pervading lawlessness that allows for contract killings.
The government’s proposed response is worrying. In his speech after the presentation of the national Budget on Thursday, President Museveni doubled down on problematic suggestions he has outlined before.

He said he did not want to hear of police bond or court bail for killers. (But how can one definitively know a suspect is a killer without due process, which may involve bond and bail?) He pointed at Chief Justice Bart Katureebe for emphasis. The Chief Justice betrayed no emotion, while his neighbour and deputy, Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, smirked a little as he swivelled in his chair. In previous days, Mr Museveni said boda bodas and all cars should have tracking devices.

The President asked to be allowed to address Parliament on the security situation in Uganda, a matter he said was of national importance. We will wait to hear his full articulation of how he intends to calm the people, whom he said were sad and angry just as he, only that he was also confident of crushing the small killer “pigs”.
Mr Museveni also added a line that was disconcerting. He declared that he was standing before Parliament not only as President but also as leader of the resistance. He said those words while essentially telling the Judiciary to do his bidding on bail.
I see potential for overreach.