We need to safeguard our country’s integrity

Two stories in yesterday’s Daily Monitor edition put the integrity of our country at stake. First is the story wondering why many of the guns used by thugs in killings and robbers in and around the capital Kampala belong to the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), Uganda Police Force (UPF) and Uganda Prisons Service (UPS).

A January report by the Flying Squad Unit (FSU) reveals that criminals are using guns from security agencies to carry out robbery missions. Findings showed that 11 out of 20 guns recovered from the criminals between July 1 and December 31, 2018 belonged to the UPDF, while five were from the Uganda Prisons Service and three from the Uganda Police Force.
Whereas Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Patrick Onyango attributes this to attacks on security personnel while on duty by thugs, the sequence points to a more dangerous direction.

That 20 guns can actually be robbed from security personnel and cannot be traced until they are used in criminal activities indicates that their security is also at stake and that we could be sitting on a time bomb.
The second story is from the Nation Media Group’s investigative bit, Panorama. In that piece, Ali Alseyed Abdul Jabar, who is accused of battering Ugandan women in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and who is also facing charges of embezzlement and human trafficking, is said to have attained a security job in Uganda’s Internal Affairs ministry despite the checkered past.

Not only that, the story also indicates that Jabar holds three Ugandan passports; two indicate different birthplaces (Kyadondo and Soroti) and those with same birthplaces indicate different issue dates (one in 2015 and another in 2016).
To make matters more intricate, officers at the Department of Citizenship and Immigration have arrested him over the offence, but the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence cleared him. Does this point to impunity or inadequacy in the investigative arm of government?

The two cases – whereas not related in act – casts our systems in bad light. They join the various cases we have had of exam malpractice, corruption within police and the Judiciary, among others.
We feel that the people concerned with either guns or passports and other security equipment must at all times be in their element and even where we have lapses, they are fixed immediately.