CCTV officers occupy unfinished police housing units

Kampala, Uganda  | THE INDEPENDENT | 45 out of 1,000 police housing units under construction have been occupied by junior police officers manning the National Closed Circuit Television –CCTV command centre at Naguru police headquarters.

Out of the seven blocks each containing 60 apartments, one is almost complete and it has already been occupied by junior police officers from the ranks of Inspector of Police to Police Constable.

Superintendent of Police –SP George Nsagi, also lead police engineer revealed to Uganda Radio Network –URN that policemen and policewomen who operate CCTV National Command Centre hurriedly occupied the two bed-roomed apartments due to their full-time duties.

In December, police appointed 57 junior police officers to operate the CCTV command centre joining their 45 senior who had been appointed earlier.

Nsagi revealed to URN during a visit to the site that the units were supposed to have been completed in two years, but construction has now stretched into the fourth year.

Nsagi also said that the remaining 15 apartments of the complete block will be occupied by end of this month. Each apartment has two bedrooms, a sitting room, kitchen and washrooms.

A visit to the site revealed on-going construction work as engineers were also fixing lights at the already occupied building. Inside the apartments, cleaning was on-going while the parking space was still littered with debris.

Before police embarked on the construction of the housing units, a feasibility study was conducted in 2015 in regard to accommodation of juniors officers in Kampala Metropolitan where it was establish that over 10,000 housing units were needed to minimize accommodation puzzle.

A Policy Advisory Committee –PAC chaired by then Inspector General of Police –IGP Gen Kale Kayihura settled for 1,020 housing units as a pilot project. This project was expected to be complete latest early 2019.

The construction began on September 27, 2016. Police’s engineering unit was to first construct 17 blocks each having four floors. Each floor would contain 15 apartments totalling to 60 housing unit per block.

Police projection was that the first seven structures would accommodate 360 police officers ranging from the rank of Constable to Inspector.

Last week, Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga, acting logistics and engineering director, Richard Edyegu, said each structure is constructed at a tune of 6.9 billion shillings.

Edyegu and Enanga told URN that the construction has dragged on due to money that comes in piecemeal.

For several years, accommodation has been one of the major challenges faced by junior police officers living in Kampala Metropolitan that covers Kampala City, Wakiso, Mukono, parts of Mpigi and Kayunga districts.

Edyegu elaborated that when the construction of first seven structures is complete, plan for other remaining 11 blocks will commence. Nevertheless, it is not clear when the finished block will be occupied by the team operating CCTV Command Centre.

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URN