MUSEVENI: New security measures are beginning to bite

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Museveni has said the rate of criminality in the country is going down despite having implemented only 30 per cent of his 10-point security plan. He was today Speaking to the nation a New Year address delivered from his village in Rwakitura, Kiruhura district.

The 10-point security plan was first announced after a shooting which claimed the life of then Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga, who was gunned down by gunmen near his home in Kawanda, Wakiso district in June 2018. This also followed a series of similar incidences involving high profile nationals, gunned down in different parts of the country.

In the plan, the president directed that Closed Circuit Television – CCTV cameras be erected in urban areas and major highways, the recruitment of Local Defence Unit-LDU personnel, the introduction of electronic number plates for motor vehicles and motorcycles and cleaning up of wrong elements in the Police Force.

The other measures included fingerprinting of guns in both government and private hands, prioritizing public intelligence, regulating social media, banning motorcyclists from wearing hoods and use of drones.

In the aftermath, CCTV cameras were erected and local Defence unit personnel recruited and deployed in all parts of the country. The Police force also embarked on the registration and fingerprinting of guns.

Now the President says that although many of the other steps have not yet been worked on, the little implemented has ‘created problems for criminals’. He is optimistic that urban crime will be defeated, adding that today, the ability of criminals to do bad things and escape is going down.

Museveni says the year recorded both good and bad developments citing the Killing of Maria Nagirinya and her driver Ronald Kitayimbwa, the landslides and floods that cut off parts of the country, as some of the regrettable incidences.

He, however, adds that a number of other incidences were as a result of drunken fights and fighting over women, which were not sophisticated but simple and direct methods.

According to Museveni, crime had been aided by corruption and laxity of the Police force but hastens to add that with the recruitment of hardworking people, ‘the rotten potatoes in the Police will not waste Ugandans time’.

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