Has Museveni’s 10-point plan curbed crime?

Kampala. In June last year, President Museveni announced a 10-point strategy which he ordered security agencies to execute in order to tame the rising wave of violent crime that hit the country, particularly the capital Kampala and the metropolitan area.
At that time, several prominent Ugandans had been assassinated by shooting and other citizens kidnapped and murdered in cold blood.

The security measures included installation of CCTV cameras in urban areas and highways, deploying army and Local Defence Unit personel (LDUs), purging the police of “bean weevils” (wrong elements), electronic number-plating for vehicles/ motorcycles, finger-printing all guns, boda boda wearing hoods, prioritising public intelligence, use of police radio calls, drones and regulating social media.
These measures, the President said would stop or eliminate the murders, kidnaps, robberies and other violent crimes.
However, violent crime has continued to-date, especially in Kampala metropolitan area where many boda boda riders and mobile money agents have been killed.

Since the year began, the media have reported at last six people killed by shooting or using other deadly weapons in Kampala metropolitan alone.
On June 11, gunmen killed Harriet Naluwadde and Moreen Nakabubi, mobile money agents in Zzana area on Entebbe highway and the assailants escaped on motorcycles.
On May 16, Rafael Walugembe, a university student, was killed by a stray bullet during an attack by armed robbers on city businessman Denis Mwesigwa in Nateete. Mwesigwa was injured and robbed of cash.
On July 9, Rebecca Namuganya, 22, a mobile money agent in Kapeeke Village, Nama Sub-county in Mukono District was killed. The killers slit her throat from her rented house.

In May, three workers of Cheap General Hardware in Nansana Town on Hoima Road were killed during broad day light by masked gunmen who later grabbed more than Shs300m cash. The robbery lasted about 30 minutes without security response.
On June 30, 2019, Derrick Mulindwa, a boda boda rider was killed with a hammer by two robbers he was carrying as passengers at Kakyeka in Mengo, Rubaga. Police have since arrested one suspect who has confessed to the killing.
These cases account for only incidents reported by the media and do not represent the actual crime registered statistics by police, implying the toll could be much higher.
This years’s police bi-annual report on armed violence, shows that 41 cases involving use of guns were recorded countrywide between January and June.

However, the report does not specify crime statistics for Kampala and the metropolitan area to tell whether the aforementioned killings reflect an increase or decline in crime compared to the same period last year.
The report shows that 45 guns were involved in the crimes countrywide this year with 26 being AK-47 while another 26 firearms were recovered by security agencies.
The report says out of every 100,000 people, 612 were victims of crime and Kampala Metropolitan area remained top in crime rates followed by West Nile, Albertine, Elgon, Busoga North, Ssezibwa, Kiira and North West Nile.
In his June address last year, Mr Museveni said the installation of CCTV cameras, deployment of LDUs and other listed security measures would constitute a magic combination to eliminate urban crime.

The Shadow minister for Internal Affairs, Mr Muwanga Kivumbi, said the violent crime is still prevalent despite the security measures because government invests less in intelligence gathering and spends a lot on reactionary means to fight crime.
“Police is supposed to detect and prevent crime and apprehend suspects. This requires enhanced spying. But how do we invest in CIID (Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Directorate) [when] only Shs200m is for CIID for every district? This is very little. Also, each district gets Shs900,000 for operations,” he said.
“If you have five sub-counties, that means each will get Shs150,000 for operations. They are literally immobile. But even the little they have is always wasted in defending the regime,” he said.
However, the director of Internal Security Organisation (ISO) , Col Kaka Bagyenda, insisted the killings will be eliminated. “This will soon end,” he said.

CCVT cameras
In March, more CCTV cameras were installed in Kampala and the metropolitan Wakiso and Mukono districts. This was followed up by deployment of 6,500 LDUs in May.
By July 1, the implementation of the CCTV camera project had reached 70 per cent.
Mr Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson, said 2,547 cameras have been installed out of 3,233 needed to cover Kampala Metropolitan area, adding that 1,000km are now under CCTV surveillance.
“Police officers can monitor what is happening on connected system in 11 police divisions out of the 18. Once the entire system is connected, it will be controlled and monitored at the National Centre, which is under construction at Naguru and works have reached 40 per cent [completion],” he said.
In January, police used CCTV cameras at Clock Tower to identify and arrest Esau Nduhukire, a notorious phone thief who used to grab phones from passengers in taxis.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said using CCTV cameras, they tracked Nduhukire from the scene at Clock Tower up to the shop where he used to sell the stolen phones in Kisenyi.
Mr Musa Byamukama, a phone dealer in Kisenyi, who used to buy the stolen phones from Nduhukire, was also arrested.
“It is the footage that we presented in court and the suspects were sentenced to four months in jail,” said Superintendent of Police Onyango.
Nowadays, owners of private residences with CCTV cameras share footages of crime scenes with police.
Mr Onyango cited the arrest of John Bosco Mugisha, who is accused of strangling Derrick Mulindwa, a boda boda cyclist, and hitting him with a hammer on July 3, in Rubaga.
Mugisha and another suspect, still on the run, were captured on a CCTV footage of private premises near the scene. The footage was shared with police, which led to identification of the suspects and arrest of Mugisha.

Deploying UPDF/LDUs
For LDUs, the phased recruitment is still ongoing across the country and deployment has also started to augment the police whose ratio to civilian is 1:759 that is much higher than the internationally accepted ratio of 1:450.
At least 6,500 LDUs have been deployed in Kampala Metropolitan and 4,000 in western Uganda. More 13,000 will be recruited across the country within two weeks.
However, the LDUs that have been deployed are being accused of human rights abuses and extortion, the allegations the army has denied. The army spokesperson, Brig Richard Karemire insists the LDUs have helped to reduce crime.
“We are very emphatic that since the LDUs were deployed, they have done an outstanding job towards the reduction of crime. Any mistake they commit during their work remains an isolated incident and when they occur, the UPDF leadership takes appropriate action,” Brig Karemire said.
Remove “bean weevils”
The President said police was infested with wrong elements he termed “bean weevils” and said a systematic purge would bring down the crime rates in the country. Following this announcement last year, some police officers were arrested while others were transferred. Some police officers were asked to reapply for fresh vetting.

Electronic number plates
This measure has not been implemented. Mr Kivumbi said installing electronic number plates for all vehicles and motorcycles in the country is a very expensive venture which was not well thought-out before the President made the directive.
However, the State Minister for Works and Transport, Gen Katumba Wamala, said government is in the process of procuring a company to supply the electronic number plates.
He said some companies have presented their offers and government is reviewing them.
“We are doing it with caution to make sure we have a system that will solve the problem. We need to give it enough time because we don’t want to rush and get something that becomes obsolete within a month,” he said

No boda boda hoods
President Museveni directed the police to arrest motorcyclists or anyone wearing hoods. This followed murder incidents where the killers were hooded. The police only threatened to enforce the directive, but could not proceed due to lack of a law that prohibits a cyclist or anyone from wearing a hood.
“They still put on these hoods because there is no law that stops them from putting them on. It’s hard to enforce this directive,” Mr Kivumbi said.

Prioritising public intelligence
This still remains a joint operation by both police and ISO but the body has played a key role because of its deeply knitted intelligence structure in the public. It has a structure from headquarters to parish level. Col Bagyenda said they are receiving more information from the public about crime than before Museveni’s directive.
“We do this jointly with other security agencies. It would have been worse if these measures were not put in place. We have destroyed the network of criminality,” he said.
When asked why the murders are persistent, Col Bagyenda said: “We don’t want to say much, but soon that will be history.”

Use of police radio calls
Mr Museveni had ordered procurement of communication gadgets to ease communication on crime among police officers. The President said they were using ordinary phones which was not effective in crime management.
Police say they have not acquired the radio calls due to funding constraints. The gadgets are part of the equipment that will be supplied under the CCTV project.
Gun fingerprinting
Since September 2018, police forensic team have fingerprinted 29,900 guns in Kampala Metropolitan Policing Area, western and central region.
Mr Enanga said the team targets to complete fingerprinting of all firearms belonging in police, prisons, privately owned and those with private security organisations by September.
“The team is currently in Albertine region. They have covered central and western regions. After completing, they will fingerprint those of the army,” he said.
The fingerprinting is anticipated to help in tracing a gun used in crime to the holder by examining cartridges picked from the crime scene.

However, Mr Enanga said the cartridges police have recovered from scenes of crime so far don’t show any links to the 29,900 guns that have already been fingerprinted.
Regulating use of drones
The ninth measure was to use drones. Mr Museveni said the Ministry of Defence should come up with a law to regulate the use of unmanned planes but no such a law has been introduced. Last week, 250 drones were confiscated at Entebbe airport by customs officials.

Regulation of social media
Government has been tough on social media users, especially the critics of the regime such as Pastor Joseph Kabuleta and former Makerere University research fellow Stella Nyanzi who have been arrested although the alleged offences have nothing to do with violent crime that claims people’s lives. They are accused of posting statements that are likely to annoy the President.
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