Police returns missing guns to private security companies

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The police have recovered the 32 guns belonging to private security companies that had reportedly gone missing.

Last month, the Chairperson of Uganda Private Security Association (TUPSA), Grace Matsiko, said that private security company guns had gone missing in the hands of Police and there was no any explanation from the force.

The Acting Commissioner Private Security and Firearms Department at police headquarters at Naguru, Senior Superintendent of Police –SSP Apollo Kateeba, says that the guns have since been recovered.

Kateeba insists that it was wrong for private security companies to say police could not account for the guns without waiting to establish how the firearms had been misplaced. Police say the guns had just been misplaced but not missing.

“We have recovered the guns and owners have picked them. When you say guns cannot be accounted for it means they cannot be seen. That was wrong. We had just misplaced them. They had wrongly been given to other security companies,” Kateeba said.

Kateeba says that during the fingerprinting of all guns in the country as directed by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, some guns were wrongly handed over to other private security companies.

A joint security team comprised of Uganda Police Force –UPF, Uganda People’s Defence Forces- UPDF, Crime Intelligence –CI and Internal Security Organisation –ISO launched guns fingerprinting in April this year.

More than 16,000 guns reportedly in the hands of private security companies were fingerprinted. Even guns with government security agencies like UPDF, UPF, have all been fingerprinted.

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