Police reform is urgent lest organised crime swallows it

The commando style execution of AIGP Felix Kaweesi has dominated headlines for the last few days. This execution was a signature crime similar in fashion to the last two executions of Maj Muhammad Kiggundu, an army intelligence officer, and Ms Joan Kagezi a former state prosecutor. Kagezi and Kiggundu were both involved in the trial of rebels accused of terrorism. Their roles were more pointed in the description of their work and the success or failure of finding the persons responsible for their death has a different perspective, that of police’s own failure to detect and prevent crime.

Kaweesi’s execution has a few other perspectives. As the government’s tenure came under increased attack from civil disobedience, demonstrations and incidents of violence, the role of the police as the enforcer became front and centre. The rise of the authority of the police carried infusion of several State functions; intelligence gathering, distribution of patronage, and quickly degenerated into business. Most of the “first responders” who arrived on the scene after thugs brutally shot Kaweesi and his driver and escort were businessmen from Kikuubo and other business centres in Kampala. As noted in the tri-weekly Observer newspaper on Monday, the deceased had ties in the murky world of money, business and politics.
Most people have failed to grasp that we now have a fairly different police force from the colonial police we inherited from the British whose principal role was prevention and detection of crime, protection of life and property. Today’s police is vested with functions as wide and varied as land matters, financial and political intelligence. They referee business disputes, deal with government’s opponents. The death of Kaweesi was a bi-partisan matter attracting grief in equal measure from government and some of the people it handles and manages on the other side of the aisle.

What we have today is a combined police and paramilitary force. This is why in some respects, the police perform non-traditional functions. This has come at the time when the UPDF has retreated to more traditional combat roles and even here they find themselves sharing the platform with the police. In Kasese last year, police was side by side with UPDF fighting vigilantes. It’s a surprise that senior officers like Kaweesi still reside in civilian quarters intermingling with the general population, like they were local traffic officers chasing rogue drivers speeding on the highways. Logically, they are properties of the State and must stay in quarters.

The rapid rise in police responsibilities has been a blessing for police in terms of budget and profile. Today’s police operates in no less than 16 configurations. Uganda is one of the few countries where the transfer of an O/C station is carried as major news headlines. The movements of the Inspector General of Police are also front page news. Police officers are now routinely interested in politics and regularly running for office forcing them into partisan roles well ahead of their resignations from office. It is a poorly kept secret that many have eyes on political office all the way from the top of the force.

In this rapid grab of responsibility, the police finds itself stretched thin. Its incorporation of street criminals and thugs under the guise of community policing received an imprimatur of no less than the head of Uganda’s Judiciary during the 2016 presidential petition. These thugs continue to beat up innocent Ugandans with reckless abandon. The subject of who owns boda bodas and is responsible for their organisation is a long topic worthy of an independent column but is a major problem.
Now that we have heard that there are mafias in police, we expect more than the routine crocodile tears. It is clear that police cannot investigate itself. It is also near certain that the traditional substitutes like the Judiciary are ill-equipped as some of them are complicit in some of these problems and collusion to cover up crimes. What is clear is that we have a bigger police than we bargained for.
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]