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Annual crime and traffic/road safety report 2011: At least 10 killed per day

What you need to know:

- Crime figures released by Police yesterday indicate that Uganda is struggling with a very high murder rate, with at least one person losing their life every two hours.

- There also remains a worrying growth in mob action which the police attributes says reflects the public's preference for quick justice.

- Sex-related crimes, though prevalent, have marginally reduced.

At least 10 people are murdered everyday countrywide, according to the Annual Crime Traffic and Road Safety Report of 2011. The report, launched yesterday, shows 1,987 cases of murder in which 3,753 people were victims, an increase compared to 2010 statistics where 1,761 cases and 3,160 victims were registered.

With 3,753 reported killed everyday, it implies that a human life is violently taken away every two hours in the country.

Cases of deaths by poisoning more than doubled, and ranked highest among the homicide category with 413 instances registered, leading to 659 deaths. In 2010, police recorded 153 cases of poisoning, which resulted in 434 deaths.

The Inspector General of Police, Lt. Gen. Kale Kayihura, who released the report, said poisoning has become a big problem. “Poisoning is at its highest and also acid attacks are a real problem. These days I am even scared of eating in hotels. This is very serious,” Gen. Kayihura said.

Poisoning cases for the first time ranked higher than mob action, which is still prevalent and on the rise. At least 466 people died in the 383 cases of mob action reported to police, a figure slightly lower than the 357 cases registered in 2010 in which 438 people were killed.

In total police registered 268,811 cases of which 99,321 were criminal in nature, compared to 262,936 cases reported last year of which 99,917 were criminal. This shows a decline in crime by 3.8 per cent.

The report statistics indicate a slight decline in sex-related offences—rape, defilement, and indecent assault et al— from 8,645 in 2010 to 8,632 cases in 2011.

Nevertheless, defilement cases rose by two per cent from 7,564 cases to 7,690 in the same period.

To fight sex-related offenses, Gen. Kale Kayihura said a Department for Children and Sexual Offences has been set up within the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. A gender-based unit in the Child and Family Protection Unit has also been set up to enable specialisation and the tracking of such cases.

Road and traffic safety statistics show that accident fatalities increased by eight per cent from 2,620 in 2010 to 2,843 last year, despite a slight decline in all traffic accidents.