Crime preventers and the pretenders

Museveni struggles to find space for his `election machine’

Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME | “We undertake to protect the President and help him keep this country safe. A crime preventer can give his life for the President. We can kill for the President.”

Those were the loaded words of Blaise Kamugisha, the national coordinator of the National Crime Preventers Forum (NCPF) when President YoweriMuseveni on March 28 attended a function they organised at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium in Kampala on March 28.

Kamugisha; a lanky man in his late 20s, with an intense look and a penchant for fashionable pants and mismatched jackets, reminded the President of the value of crime preventers; especially at election time.

“We protected the votes, voters, and also voted,” he said as he urged the group not to ever betray Museveni “because we know him as a friend and we must protect him as our friend.”

Kamugisha’s pledge of loyalty drew wild cheers from the sea of mainly young men and a few women in the arena which seats about 900 (but the official press statement from State House said up to 3000 were crammed into it). Outside the arena, however, Kamugisha’s words became controversial, once again evoking a slew of questions about the character and motives of the group.

Why did Kamugisha have to state an already well-known allegiance to Museveni so controversially and so publicly? That is a question many have been asking since. It is even more poignant because Kamugisha’s pledge to kill is believable. Since the presidential election two years ago, crime preventers have been a hit by a barrage of negative press; especially their alleged involvement in crimes such as theft, violence, robbery, torture, and even murder. Human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, have called them a tool “aimed at intimidating or reducing support for the political opposition” through means, including torture. Maria Burnett, senior researcher in HRW’s Africa Division, has called them young unemployed men, enticed to joining the crime preventers program by the prospect of being paid at the end of it.

For most people, the explanation for Kamugisha’s pledge appears to be that he and his camp are desperate.  Founded in 2013 in the run-up to the 2016 general election, the National Crime Preventers Forum has always seen its role as an election machine of Museveni and attached to the Uganda Police. But when Museveni in March fired their main benefactor, the former Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura, the crime preventers appeared lost and abandoned. And the timing could not have been worse.

Desperate for money

Apparently, two years after the 2016 elections and with the new elections expected in 2023, the crime preventers were fumbling around for relevance even before Kayihura’s sacking. With new police boss OkothOchola indicating clearly that he had no time or plans for them, theirfavourite activities – hanging around police stations and parasiting on the police budget – were no longer viable. Yet the group is desperate for money – actually Shs16 billion from the Uganda Police.

Since its founding, the National Crime Preventers Forum has lobbied for and got a number of gigs aimed at supplementing the handouts they were receiving from Kayihura. Innocent Manuku, the head of Communications at NCPF, told The Independent that they, for example, formed a Savings Cooperative and Credit Organisation (SACCO) called Mwangaza which was awarded a tender to supply food to all deployed and operational forces in the country in 2016.

Manuku says Mwangaza, joined forces with Exodus; the Police SACCO,to supply food to all deployed and operational forces in the country in 2016 in a deal sold as a food cost-cutting move.

“We collected money and invested it in the supply of food to police during the last presidential elections and the next eight months after the elections,” Manuku says. But, he says, police still owes Mwangaza Shs16 bilion for the catering services rendered. That is money which can only be paid if Museveni sanctions it. And, despite Kamugisha’s voluble pledges of loyalty, President Museveni did not make any public pledges of financing for the desperate group. Instead, Museveni spoke vaguely about what he perceives to be the future of the group.

“A few weeks ago, I saw in the papers and somebody said that the fate of the crime preventers is to be decided by the new Inspector General of Police. I called the IGP and told him that this is not your problem,” Museveni told the Lugogo gathering as he explained that he sees them as “militias who would guard villages” and combat crime. But Museveni appeared to throw them several lifelines.

“I now regard you as a Reserve Army of the UPDF,” he told them.