Museveni turns down police demands
President Museveni addresses police officers after a council meeting at the police headquarters in Naguru, Kampala, yesterday. The President disagreed with the Force’s demands on manpower and funds, saying the police instead needed better planning. PHOTO BY DAVID LUBOWA
President Museveni has turned down police demands to have a huge manpower, more funds for feeding officers and managing of the force fleet.
While addressing the 25th Police Council at Naguru in Kampala yesterday, President Museveni, said he needs a simple plan like the one the British used during the colonial times that had few personnel but could managed crime.
“Because the colonialists didn’t have enough resources, their plan was through the chiefs – Muluka and sub-county chiefs. They (chiefs) would call the tenda (police patrol). I closely monitored it between 1951 and 1958. I could see these people manage huge areas using a skeleton number of police officers,” President Museveni said.
Police have been asking for more than 85,000 police officers to manage security.
Major challenges
The Inspector General of Police, Mr Martins Okoth-Ochola, told President Museveni that the police’s major challenges are inadequate human resource, funds, accommodation, feeding during operations, training, and fleet maintenance.
The police also want to establish more police stations around the country.
But President Museveni said the lowest station should be at the sub-county level and each should have at least 20 police officers.
“What if we had a police station per sub-county with 20 police officers? There are around 1,600 sub-counties in Uganda. That is a force of 32,000,” he said.
The President said the total police strength should be 60,000 officers.
Currently, there are 43,000 police officers in the country.
He also said each station would be given two motorcycles to cover a sub-county.
He, however, wondered why 20 people would fail to manage crime in a sub-county.
On accommodation, President Museveni said the police should construct houses for police officers at sub-county level.
He didn’t talk about increasing funding for the police housing plan. IGP Ochola later said: “We assure you Sir of our determination and resolve to preserve law and order in the country, especially as we approach 2021.”
