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Police officers tipped to prioritize intelligence in averting protests

Police clash with protesters in Nakuru County, Kenya

Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The commander of the Jinja cantonment of the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces-UPDF Brig. Emmanuel Kanyesigye has challenged Police officers to leverage intelligence as a means of guarding the country against violent protests.

Kanyesigye says that it is prudent for police to have intelligence information about all criminal-minded individuals within their communities, to save the country from organised chaos.

Citing the ongoing protests in Kenya, Kanyesigye says that there was already brewing propaganda geared towards overthrowing the government and the finance bill was just a trigger, sparking off the protests.

Kanyesigye challenges the police’s criminal intelligence personnel alongside detectives to take hold of such information and sanction preventive arrests where necessary.

Kanyesigye notes that most of the protestors are misinformed about state crafts and operations, assuming wishes which require ample time to fulfil, necessitating timely interventions to deter the spread of toxic propaganda to the rest of the population.

He further argues that much as protestors justify their cause on corruption, their excesses involving the destruction of property derail their goal to something mischievous.

Kanyesigye also tasked police personnel to be mindful of the ever-changing forms of terrorism, with violent extremists opting for aggravated murders, which scare away members of the general public to flee from their known areas of habitation, in fear of physical harm or death.

He adds that with the Allied Democratic Forces-ADF still hosting recruitment cells in the Busoga sub-region, security personnel ought to be mindful of safeguarding the public from their acts of terrorism.

On his part, Richard Gulume, the Jinja resident district commissioner says that security is a collective effort, with members of the general public key in availing intelligence-related information about criminal-related activities in their communities.

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