The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Only 129 police posts have been merged in a pilot study to test the effectiveness of President Yoweri Museveni’s proposal to rejuvenate the colonial sub-county-based policing model.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga, says that police resolved to first merge 76 police posts in Kampala Metropolitan and 53 others in Katongo, Wamala, Ssezibwa, and Savannah policing regions.
“We want to come up with clarity on the number of police posts that have been merged under the reorganization. This was an executive directive we have been evaluating and the piloting stage has actually begun. As of today, we have 129 police posts that are being piloted to see the practicability of the sub county model,” Enanga said.
In November 2019, Museveni told the police council at Naguru police headquarters of the need to stop scattering police personnel by creating a simple plan like the British protectorate police had and was effective in fighting crime.
The President cited an example of Ntungamo where he was born and raised, which had about three administrative police personnel at the sub county level and the main police station in Mbarara.
“When I was growing up in the 1950s, those British had a very simple plan of policing. I grew up in that big area called Ankole and I was at the end of it in a place called Ntungamo. But whenever there would be a murder, that was when you would see a black van that we called Tender. Whenever you saw it, you would know somebody has died,” Museveni said.
The essence of citing the British protectorate policing style was to show the police leadership that they can concentrate police capabilities at sub-counties so that they can have strong mechanisms of responding to security emergencies.
The police leadership last week resolved to implement the sub county policing style following the successful attacks on police posts, which led to the death of police personnel and injuring of others. The attackers have been varnishing with the firearms of their victims.
The decision came two days after seven armed people raided Busiika police station in Luweero district, killed two police personnel, and left two others nursing wounds. This brought to six, the number of raids on police officers in Nakaseke, Luweero, Mityana, Kiboga, Wakiso, and Bukwo districts.
Reports made by the Crime Intelligence directorate that has been taking lead in investigating the attacks indicate that the attackers have been successful because they outnumber the officers at the police posts. Most of the police posts and small police stations have no more than seven police officers.
But thugs often come in numbers ranging from seven to 12 armed with guns and machetes thus outnumbering the police personnel. Enanga says that they have merged 22 police posts in Kampala Metropolitan North, 26 in KMP South, 28 in KMP East, 7 in Katonga, 10 in Ssezibwa, 15 in Savannah, and 21 in Wamala policing region.
“We have directed that a number of logistical resources and manpower to sub-counties and the public should expect a better, more effective, and efficient delivery of services. We are going to deploy traffic officers, crime intelligence, SOCOs (scene of crime officers), and other specialized units,” Enanga said.
Police say the officers who are now concentrated at sub-counties are going to conduct day and night foot and motorized patrols.
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