By Kampala Post Reporter
President Yoweri Museveni has appealed to the leadership of the Uganda Police Force to design a clear, holistic and simplistic plan that will make the Force more effective in executing their mandate of keeping law and order, curbing crime, protecting lives and property of all Ugandans.
Addressing the 25th Police Council meeting at Naguru Police headquarters on Tuesday, President Museveni noted that with the current Police Force and the improved technology at its disposal, a clear, operational plan and guidelines, would enable the Force effectively deliver on their mandate of securing the people and their property.
The theme of this year’s Police Council meeting was: “Strengthening Our Achievements and Finding Solutions to Policing Challenges to Guarantee Public Safety.”
The President proposed that the police could for example deploy a 20 man police force in each and every sub-county in the country. He noted that with such a force in a sub-county with a 24 hour telephone line for the public to call and with over 23 million Ugandans already connected on mobile phone networks, the police with help of the public would effectively detect and quickly respond to crime and secure the public.
Museveni however observed that in order for the police to deliver on her mandate they needed ideological clarity so as to understand the importance of their service to the citizens and the country.
“The police need to know their mission in their service which is to support the prosperity of their relatives and this is done by availing them with an enabling environment to produce goods and services. The police should protect the lives and wealth of the population,” he emphasized.
The President meanwhile expressed concern that although the National Resistance Movement strengthen many laws that are meant to harshly punish criminals, the police and the courts of laws have continued to neglect them and go on to grant police bonds and court bails to core criminals such as those involved in defilement, homicide, murder, rape and terrorism.
Museveni appealed to police leadership to improve on their supervisory role and monitor how their juniors do their work. He said that the police leadership needed to do on spot assessment and also interact with the public if they were to understand how good the conduct of the police was.
The President further told the police council that for the police to deliver on its Mandate the police leadership needed to plan and work on improving the welfare of the police force. He at this point proposed the police force should build 18 police secondary schools in the 18 traditional regions of Uganda to relieve members of the force of the social pressure of paying school fees for their children yet their remuneration has not reached the preferred standard.
He said that for the primary school children of the police officer they can join the children of the other citizens in Universal primary education program. He also said that government was to look into increased funding and remuneration of the police force.
The State Minister for Internal Affairs, Obiga Kania said the police council meeting was a high level meeting of the police force leadership is meant for the police to do self-evaluation on their performance of duty and delivery on their mandate.
He thanked President Museveni for the guidance he has always given to the police force in their course of duty and for sparing time to address the 2019 police council meeting.
The inspector General of Police Martin Okoth Ochola revealed that the police leadership always uses the police council meeting to review on the police force policies and performance, adding that the 2019 meeting was very important because of the challenges the force is facing in combating crime in the country.
He however assured the President that the Uganda Police Force has the resolve to combat crime and ensure law and order especially as the country draws closer to the 2021 election period.
