LDUs should be disciplined

President Museveni last week passed out 6,376 Local Defence Unit (LDU) recruits in addition to 6,400 who were passed out in March this year to fight urban crime.

During their pass out, the President said the LDU force is part of the wider and cheaper way of defending the country through an affordable formula where you have no big army in time of peace but one which has necessary and strategic elements.
However, cases of reported gun misuse by the LDU personnel have become common.

The 12,776 strong militia have not only been accused of human rights violations, but the country is yet to see an end to the kind of crime they were deployed to limit, with reports suggesting the situation has remained the same and in some cases become worse.

A string of robberies, murder and other urban crimes have happened across the country, especially in the Kampala Metropolitan Area, with negligible effort by the LDUs to stop the same. Instead, the LDUs are accused of, among other things, carrying out brutal assault, arbitrary arrest, extortion and sometimes killing in communities where they have been deployed.

For instance, on December 17, Dan Apollo, the LC3 chairperson of Rupa Sub-county in Moroto District, was allegedly shot dead by an LDU in Kidepo, Moroto. Apollo had reportedly been invited to address an issue regarding impounded cattle in the area.

On November 5, one Jimmy Ssetumba, a resident of Bunamwaya in Wakiso District, was also reportedly shot dead by an LDU after the former was engaged in a scuffle with a commercial sex worker. Some witnesses said trouble started when Ssetumba and the sex worker started quarreling over money after emerging from a guest house in Kabuusu, Rubaga Division at around 5pm. Less than a week before that, there was panic at Buyala Village, Muduuma Sub-county in Mpigi District, after a Local Defence Unit guard shot and killed one of the residents.

Mr Faisal Mpanga, a councillor representing Muduuma Sub-county in Mpigi District Council, identified the deceased as Samuel Odukur, 40. He said Odukur was killed on October 27 when he reportedly resisted arrest for allegedly assaulting his wife.

Although the UPDF claims that the LDUs are well trained and understand the dynamics of the cosmopolitan environment in which they operate and maintain a focused approach in the face of operational challenges, the realities on ground speak to the contrary.

It paints a picture of indiscipline on the LDU force. It also shows that perhaps some LDU personnel have individual problems and conduct that was not well observed during their recruitment process.