Are top officers driven to exit police early?

On the evening of May 29, information trickled in that the director of operations, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Assuman Mugenyi was handing over office to his deputy Senior Commissioner of Police, John Nuwagira.
Though Mr Mugenyi is in his mid-50s, President Museveni did not renew his contract in the police when it ended in May. In public service, workers are retired at the age of 60. Mr Mugenyi exited the police force after 32 years of service.

Mr Mugenyi had commanded a police team that pursued Herbert Itongwa’s rebel group in Mukono District in the 1990s. He also policed Kabarole District when Jamil Mukulu’s Allied Democratic Forces rebels roamed the region. He also commanded police operations against cattle rustling in northern and eastern Uganda.
He is also known for his iron-fist in breaking up or ordering dispersal of Opposition meetings and gatherings. Ten other Assistant Inspector General of Police officers have exited the Force in the last three years.
They are Elizabeth Kuteesa, Ahmed Wafuba Waduwa, Dr Fred Yiga, Francis Rwego, Godfrey Bangirana, Dr Steven Kasiima, Lemmy Twinomugisha, Hajj Moses Balimwoyo, Grace Turyagumanawe, and Haruna Isabirye.

Mr Turyagumanawe is the latest to exit the force this week after his application for renewal of his contract was rejected by the President.
All these officers exited before turning the public service retirement age of 60.
Majority of them had applied for renewal of their contracts, but President Museveni rejected them. They are among the elite and most experienced officers in the force and it is not clear why their education and seniority would not be enough to persuade the President to retain them in the force.
Observers say this is the biggest exodus of AIGPs to exit police within three years in the last 20 years.

However, some officers have had their contracts renewed more than twice or thrice.
Former Deputy Inspector General of Police Julius Odwe says this is double standards for some officers to serve one term and are exited while others are granted contract renewal for more than twice.
Mr Odwe says it is unfair that some aged AIGPs have had their contracts renewed three or more times when younger and hardworking AIGPs are sent home.
The AIGP is the third highest rank in the Uganda Police Force. They are appointed by the President on advice of the police authority, which is chaired by the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Mr Odwe says AIGPs and officers above are supposed to get a three-year contract renewable once. He served two contracts and left aged 56 in 2012 after declining the minister’s request to seek renewal.
“When my second term contract expired, the Minister of Internal Affairs Matia Kasaija tried to convince me to remain in the police and even promised a pay rise. I refused because I was going to bring a dilemma to the police. I decided to act as an example,” Mr Odwe says.
He was among the implementers of the contract policy for officers at and above the rank of AIGP when he was still serving the Force.

Exiting and contract policy
Why are these senior officers exiting the force against their wish and before the retirement age? Are these exits based on the law, discretion of the President or a gazetted police policy?
Apparently, sources in police say, the contract policy is not based on any law or statutory instrument. It was a recommendation of the Justice Julia Ssebutinde Commission of Inquiry into corruption in Uganda Police in 1999, and was later approved by Cabinet in a White Paper.
The contract policy was aimed at prompting police directors to perform at AIGP rank.
The policy gives the President discretion to remove non-performing police directors without going through the tedious and long public service process. The policy does not specify the length of the contract for an AIGP.
It can be one year, two years or three. The President can also vary the contract length the way he wishes.

The Police Act makes it difficult to absorb an officer at the rank of AIGP, who had already retired from a pensionable job. The Act does not allow a retired officer to be reabsorbed in the Force on pensionable job.
According to the Contract Policy, an officer appointed to the rank of AIGP when he or she is 45 years or above, has to retire from a pensionable police job and serve on contract.
A former police officer, who retired at the level of director but declined to be named, said the big exit of AIGPs is part of a bigger scheme to control the police leadership for political expediency.
He did not elaborate how the exit of AIGPs would turn the police into a political tool.

However, a source in police argued that an AIGP who wants his or her contract renewed lives at the mercy of the President and cannot resist any irregular orders that may favour the ruling party for fear of losing the chance for reappointment.
However, Mr Don Wanyama, the Senior Presidential Press Secretary, insisted the President appoints AIGPs after consultation with other authorities.
“Education and experience might not necessarily mean efficiency and good performance. However, the IGP would be more technical in answering this. What I know is that the President does consult though ultimately it is at his discretion to appoint or disappoint,” Mr Wanyama says.
Another retired officer claimed the exits of senior police officers is a result of the historical negative attitude by the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) since it captured power in 1986. He said police have since been perceived as an extension of the former regime of Uganda People’s Congress and there have been systematic attempts to neutralise it with officers from the army, “the friendly force”.

“They neglected police to subdue it. At one time, we had only four cars for the entire Kampala Extra Region. The British saw our dire needs and gave us Land Rovers and also trained our officers. Despite all those challenges, we remained professional and non-partisan,” the officer says.
He says in the 1996 General Election, when police officers overwhelmingly voted the Opposition, was the turning point and triggered the process to purge their leadership.
“I recall the President saying if he contested against a cow, the police would rather vote the cow, not him. Justice Ssebutinde Commission of Inquiry was used, first, to disorganise the police and later capture it and then reorganise it to suit [NRM] political interests. What is in the police now is a military takeover,” the retired officer alleges.

Recommendation
The Justice Ssebutinde Commission, which completed its work in 2000, recommended an overhaul of the police to give it a rebirth from corruption and other unprofessional behaviour.
After the Commission, several senior police officers were discharged from the force “in public interest.”
The retired police officer says the Ssebutinde Commission marked the genesis of the gradual purge of the police leadership.
In 2001, the late Inspector General of Police John Kisembo was discharged and replaced by Maj Gen Katumba Wamala, who became the first military officer to head the Uganda Police under the NRM.

In 2002, President Museveni appointed the first four Assistant Inspector Generals of Police (AIGPs): Francis Rwego, who was then director of operations, Eric Turyatunga, then director of administration; Joventine Odoket, director of special branch, and Elizabeth Kuteesa, CID director. All were in their 40s.
Mr Turyatunga, now retired, says the age at which an officer was appointed an AIGP didn’t matter then and now but rather the issue was whether that person would automatically turn 60 years in that position.
“That is the challenge about that rank I left in the police when I retired in 2008. When I retired, I was 51 years. The appointing authority reserves the right to appoint or disappoint,” Mr Turyatunga says.

At the time, he exited police, he had been removed by Gen Kale Kayihura, another army officer who had replaced Gen Katumba as IGP. Mr Turyatunga had been redeployed at the new directorate of local administration police, which had increased the number of directorates from four to five.
He was replaced by an Assistant Commissioner of Police Chris Opio as director of police administration. In 2007, ACP Opio was promoted to AIGP. In the same year, AIGP Kuteesa was seconded to International Police Organisation on attachment.
In 2008, President Museveni appointed six more officers to AIGP positions bringing the total number to 11.

Mr Turyatunga retired in December the same year while Odoket joined the UN Mission in Sudan. The directorate of special branch was literally disbanded.
However, of the new appointed AIGPs, only Fred Kiyaga and Martins Okoth-Ochola had directorates to head. AIGP Kiyaga was head of a new directorate of Counter Terrorism, and AIGP Ochola headed CID after replacing Kuteesa.
The other AIGPs included late Richard Bisherurwa, late Julius Shalitah, Godfrey Bangirana and Edward Ochom. They were running departments or units.
A year later, Gen Kayihura created new directorates to accommodate the increasing number of AIGPs.

In May 2009, President Museveni elevated another group of officers to AIGP. They included Jessica Orodriyo, Asan Kasingye, Andrew Sorowen and Abbas Byakagaba. Gen Kayihura had to create more departments, and directorates to accommodate them. They are still serving on contract. Unlike their colleagues, their contracts have been renewed more than thrice.

Structural problems
Structural problems, however, started to emerge in the police when the number of AIGPs exceeded the directorates recognised by the Public Service, a problem that exists to date.
Mr Turyatunga says some police officers, especially young ones and career officers, leave police when they get side-lined and their positions are taken over by inexperienced or non-police officers.

“These young officers are promoted to those ranks because of hardwork and they have many years ahead to improve their career. After one or two contracts, they are put aside and inexperienced fellows without even basic training in police come and superintend over them. It is a big challenge. Some of those officers naturally get frustrated,” he said.

By 2016, the number of AIGPs had reached 24 including one army colonel.
New units or departments such as Special Duties, Oil and Gas, Production, Anti Stock Theft Unit and Parliament Police accommodated the AIGPs.
AIGP Orodriyo says with many directorates, the police is top-heavy.
“The question we need to ask ourselves is whether there is a legal justification to have many directorates. Were they necessary? All police activities must be backed by a legal framework as the guiding principle. I don’t know the principle the Public Service and Ministry of Finance used to approve the budgets for these directorates,” AIGP Orodriyo says.

Mr Turyatunga says the Public Service regulations to create a directorate are that it must have at least three or four departments.
“Imagine creating a directorate of one person. What is the directorate going to direct? There must be hierarchy,” he says.
He compared the creation of many directorates to the similar situation of increasing the number of districts, MPs and other administrative units in the last 12 years.
“It is a trend in the country, even in police. You can have 50 directorates even if each is created for three people,” he says.

Mr Herbert R. Karugaba, the former director of CID, has a more radical view of the Uganda police today. He says it is like an occupied force.
“The Uganda Police Force is now an institution with a strict military hierarchy, training that retains a military ideology, and practices that frequently resemble an occupying force which has just conquered a new enemy territory,” he says.
However, after Gen Kayihura exited police in 2017, his successor Okoth-Ochola started getting rid of some directorates that were not in Public Service structure.
Mr Ochola too found it hard to find a team to build on as many of the serving AIGPs worked without contracts. The President later gave the AIGPs a one-year extension in May 2019.

But their celebrations were short-lived. President Museveni reshuffled and brought four military officers to occupy key directorates. Not long after, the AIGPs’ contract extensions expired, but many remained in office and Ochola had to remind them to hand over office and leave.

Renewed contracts
Still in service
President Museveni renewed contracts of five Assistant Inspector Generals of Police including two who had handed over office to their deputies early this year.
According to a police source, President Museveni renewed the contract of AIGPs Asan Kasingye (Chief Police Commissar), Andrew Sorowen (Special Duties), Joseph Mugisa, John Ndungutse (Attaché at Uganda Embassy in Kenya) and Erasmus Twaruhukwa.
In a police message to all units on March 24, President Museveni appointed AIGP Twaruhukwa as the Director for Human Rights and Legal Services.