How LDUs have lost public confidence

On November 18, Ibrahim Mutaasa, 35, was arrested in Wandegeya Town in Kampala City, on allegations of participating in protests that erupted after the arrest of presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, in Luuka District. 

Police say Mutaasa complied with the officers to go to Wandegeya Police Station where he was expected to be detained. 
However, while at the station, a Local Defence Unit (LDU) personnel, Pte Mustafa Ssali, violently dragged him to the cells. 

On the way, Pte Ssali started beating Mutaasa and later shot him dead. 
Mutaasa is now one of the statistics of dozens of people who have lost their lives to trigger happy LDUs since their redeployment in 2018.
Hundreds other people have suffered injuries at the hands of LDUs.

A fraction of these human rights abuses, especially those that have been captured by the public through phone cameras or have overwhelming evidence involving LDUs have been investigated and prosecuted. 

Majority of these abuses have gone unpunished. Ugandans across the board, including President Museveni, believe that the LDUs’ conduct needs to change. 

At least 55 legal aid organisations under the Legal Aid Service Providers Network (Laspnet) demanded that the LDU force should be disbanded for violating their human rights abuses.  

“To engage the Ministry of Internal Affairs and make resolutions to disband Local Defence Unit since it has lost its purpose and turned out to be a danger to the right to life, security of persons and their property,”  Ms Sandra Oryema, the chairperson of Laspnet, said.

Their origin
In 1986/1987, when the LDU was established, the LDUs were to ensure protection of Ugandans and their property and also preserve peace. 

When the National Resistance Movement (NRM) took over power, the LDU was formed to help with community security after 12,000 of the 15,000 police officers were retrenched due to human rights abuses. 

Government reinforced the police with LDUs. Mr Taibu Ssekitoleko, the chairman for Muwafu Zone in Kibuli, Makindye Division, says the initial programmes and operations by LDUs were good.

“The government used to work with LCI, II and security committees to recruit LDU personnel. A vote on who was supposed to be LDU was done by the community. After the chosen LDUs were trained, they were sent back to the same community to provide security,” Mr Ssekitoleko says. 

At least two able-bodied but disciplined people were chosen by the Local Council committees and vetted by the community before they were sent for military training.

“We used to collect Shs1,000 every month from each household and the money would be used to maintain and pay the LDUs. The residents willingly gave us the money,” he says.

However, as people in the southern region were piling praises on the LDUs, their northern counterparts were in tears. 

In northern and eastern regions, LDUs had been recruited to reinforce the army in fighting different rebel groups.

An Amnesty International report in 1994 documented incidents such as one in Kalaki barracks where a man was flogged to death by soldiers and LDUs in Pallisa District in August. 

The report indicated that police arrested “both National Resistance Army and LDU personnel, who were then forcibly freed by soldiers from Kalaki barracks.”

Even in the south, many LDUs had become a problem, engaging in incidents of extrajudicial killings, extortion and other forms of violent crimes.

The Police Statute of 1994 attempted to bring the LDUs to order and proper management when they were placed under the police constabulary. 

The Statute 13 gave the district police commander powers to manage LDUs. This was to solve the problem of their wages that was suspected to be the main cause of their indiscipline.

The Inspector General of Police issued an April 3, 1995, circular on Deployment of LDUs on Special Operations on how they would be recruited and deployed. 

Mr Ssekitoleko, however, says attaching LDUs to police did not solve the problem. 

“In 1995, two LDUs from my village picked guns at Kabalagala Police Station for night patrols. They hired them to criminals instead. We couldn’t trace the LDUs in the morning. We found out later that the criminals they had hired the guns to had been arrested in another village and guns recovered,” he says. 

After the 1996 General Election, the public trust in LDUs waned. The communities were no longer willing to contribute any money for the LDUs wages.  

In November 1998, the government planned to absorb them in the police to be able to strengthen command and control over them, and also deal with training inadequacies and indiscipline.

As the numbers of LDUs were scaled down or integrated in the police as Special Police Constables in southern region, in the northern region the recruitment increased. 

The LDUs were to deal with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and also Karimojong armed cattle rustlers. 

Violent crimes by LDUs, especially in eastern and northern Uganda, reached alarming levels that in September 2001 President Museveni, while in Katakwi District, ordered they should be under the command structure of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, according to a New Vision story on September 23, 2001.

In the urban areas, President Museveni established a unit code-named Operation Wembley and named the then Col Elly Kayanja to lead it. 
The unit was to deal with increasing armed robberies and violent crime in the capital city.  

In June 2002, Col Kayanja (now Major General) recruited LDUs into the unit. Reports by several human rights watchdogs, including Uganda Human Rights Commission, said Operation Wembley was one of the worst human rights abusers and it was disbanded in one year of its creation. 

A new unit dubbed Violent Crime Crack Unit (VCCU) replaced it but retained most of the LDUs. 

The human rights abuses did not cease. The LDUs received meagre pay and it did not come on time. 

Mr John Eresu,  the former MP for Kaberamaido,  who was also the second-in-command of Arrow Boys, who were LDUs in Teso, says when the defence units were established, they were to defeat the LRA rebels that had spread to  the sub-region in 2003. 

“At the time, LRA rebels attacked Teso and we did not have enough military presence. The nearest barracks were in Moroto and Mbale districts. We mobilised veterans and youth to defend the area under Arrow Boys. We had command and control over them,” Mr Eresu says.

He says they faced challenges of funding that Mr Mike Mukula, who was their leader, at one time had to sell his vehicle to pay them.  

Mr Eresu denies that the Arrow Boys committed human rights abuses, although reports from human rights agencies, army and government indicate so.

The northern and eastern regions suffered the worst abuses. In June 2005, Aruu County legislator Odonga Otto brought the issue in Parliament. 

On June 29, 2005, the then Minister of State for Defence, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, issued a statement in Parliament saying that LDUs that had not been paid for months or given adequate welfare due to shortage of funds, Parliament records indicate.

The then Minister of Defence, Mr Amama Mbabazi, said establishment of LDUs had been due to shortage of police personnel.

“As soon as the police cover these areas, it will be performing its functions. The government has already decided that some LDUs will be recruited into the police so that they can have adequate training for policing and are converted to police officers and their payment continues from the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” Mr Mbabazi said. 
The UPDF also integrated LDUs in northern and eastern regions.

Transitions
Before Gen Kale Kayihura was appointed IGP in 2005, absorbing some LDUs into police as Special Police Constables (temporary job) and Police Constables (permanent) had started.

Kabalagala’s Kisementi Zone chairman, Mr Ismail Kinene, says in early 2000, police informed them to allow them take LDUs for specific deployment and then return them. 

“They didn’t come back. We were left with a big security gap, which we are still grappling with now,” Mr Kinene says. 

In 2007, Gen Kayihura attempted to revive a similar local defence project under the Usalama system, but it failed because the personnel could not work without being paid.

Although police absorbed LDUs as Special Police Constables (SPCs) and offered them refresher training with guarantee to regular pay and facilitation, the rate of indiscipline didn’t drop significantly. 

The police units under which they were deployed received criticism for torture, crime and indiscipline. 
This led to disbandment of the VCCU which was converted into Rapid Response Unit, which replaced it. 

When Mr Martins Okoth Ochola replaced Gen Kayihura in 2017, he started an investigation into the conduct of units in which former LDUs were deployed. 

IGP Ochola terminated contracts of dozens of former LDUs from the Flying Squad Unit. 

Police’s proposal to recruit 30,000 officers to reach the strength of 70,000 to be able to manage crime, wasn’t taken. 
It was alleged that there were no funds to manage that number.

Like in previous incidents in 2018, President Museveni ordered the UPDF to recruit more than 30,000 LDUs to maintain law and order in urban areas.

In the spotlight

Following the Covid-19 lockdown in March, LDUs were captured beating and shooting innocent people purportedly to enforce the Ministry of Health measures aimed at containing the pandemic.

President Museveni condemned the LDUs actions, saying they were tarnishing the image of the armed forces, ruling party and country.

Then UPDF started taking action by prosecuting the errant LDUs, but human rights abuses persisted. In July, President Museveni ordered withdrawal of LDUs from the community and check points on roads.

He ordered that they be taken for retraining. When they were brought back, their operations were restricted. 

In September, President Museveni wrote to the Inspector General of Police Okoth Ochola expressing worry about many reckless shootings by LDUs. He ordered that standards be set up to regulate them.