Fight for power rocks Police Exodus Sacco

A section of police officers have rejected the Police Council resolution that selected a nine-member steering committee to determine the restructuring of the management of the Police Exodus Sacco.

The nine-member committee, chaired by the deputy Inspector General of Police, Maj Gen Stephen Sabiiti Muzeeyi, was selected last week by the Police Council. Other prominent members on it are the deputy director for legal Directorate, Ms Christine Nanding, the deputy Chief Political Commissar, Ms Olivia Wawire, and the Chief of Staff, Brig Gen Jack Bakasumba.

The protesting officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said the committee is illegal since it was not established by the Police Exodus Sacco annual general meeting as required by the law.

The officers said the selected committee comprises non-members of the the sacco.
But the the assistant commissioner of police, Ms Polly Namaye, yesterday said the decision by the Police Council to establish a committee is to resolve the challenges the Police Exodus Sacco faces.

“The police sacco doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It is supervised by the police. It belongs to police officers. This decision is in the best interest of all police officers,” Ms Namaye said.

The Police Exodus Sacco is expected to hold elections this Friday and several police officers have already declared their candidature.

Eligibility
Last week, police chief political commissioner Asan Kasingye said not every officer should be eligible to contest for leadership positions in the Sacco. The Police Council resolved that the chairperson of the Sacco should be at the rank of a police commissioner.

But most of the senior officers, who joined the Police Exodus Sacco at its inception are between the ranks of Superintendent and Assistant Commissioner of Police.

Officers, who are now eligible to contest for the Police Sacco leadership posts are members of the rival police association named Police Savings Association Ltd (PSAL), which was started three decades ago.

There were efforts to merge the two saccos in 2009, but PSAL members refused prompting the former IGP to evict them from police facilities and replaced them with Police Exodus Sacco.

Background
Police Exodus Sacco was established in 2007 under the guidance of the former Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, to lift the livelihood of police officers. It has 40,000 members with assets worth more than Shs20b.

But 12 years later, Police Exodus Sacco is dogged with financial challenges and claims of mismanagement and has not held an Annual General Meeting for three years.

Police officers claim that they are unable to get loans and dividends since it was established. Other officers say they are unable to withdraw some of their savings as they wish as per the Sacco standards.

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