Kabuleta asks Museveni to give security update
Leader of the National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED), Joseph Kabuleta.
What you need to know:
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Former presidential candidate Joseph Kabuleta has asked President Museveni to brief the country on the current state of security in the country.
“We want a State of the Nation address on the security situation in Uganda. Let the President come and tell us who is attacking police and stealing the guns,” Mr Kabuleta said during the weekly National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED) party press conference yesterday.
He added: “We don’t want any more Ebola updates. Right now security is more important than Ebola. So many people being arrested and killed and in such a state of uncertainty even the lawless people will start doing anything they want because they feel empowered.”
He said the uncertainty is being caused by the statements and tweets put out by the President and the first son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
“For the first time we are seeing more than one centre of power. One person says this and the other comes out and tweets the opposite which makes us feel like the President is not in charge if his son, who he recently promoted, is contradicting him openly,” Mr Kabuleta said.
The party secretary general, Mr Asuman Odaka, said: “We are hearing that police officers are being withdrawn, others merged and others even shut down in the name of protecting the trained police officers. So, who is going to protect the unarmed and untrained citizens?”
Crime
This comes a week after Busiika Police Post in Luweero District was attacked by armed assailants leaving three officers dead. The officers’ guns were stolen by the perpetrators.
Efforts to get a comment from the Senior Presidential spokesman, Mr Sandor Walusimbi, were in futile as our calls went unanswered.
However, the deputy press secretary to the President, Mr Faruk Kirunda, said police is investigating all security matters and a national security address is not necessary at the moment.
“Not every issue requires the President to address the nation. The President cannot just speak without facts. The concerned security agencies are still investigating the recent attacks. In any case, police is in control and the IGP addressed this issue,” Mr Kirunda said.
The last presidential address that hinted on security was in October 2021 following the failed assassination of Gen Katumba Wamala, the minister of Works and Transport.
Mr Museveni blamed the rising crime rate on “infiltration of the police by criminal elements that would collude with the criminals, laxity and lack of seriousness, and a serious deficit in technological capacity of the police to handle crime”.
The Uganda Police Annual Crime Report 2021 released in May stated that there was a slight increase in crimes reported to the police from 195,931 in 2020 to 196,081 in 2021.
