Uganda: UPDF and Guardian Primary School Authorities Standoff (13.02.2018)

UPDF: “Allegations by Lt. John Harrison Obote” (18.01.2018)

UPDF: Military Police has not taken over Police Powers and Resources (21.06.2017)

Uganda: UPF Circular – “Individual Responsibility for Court Awards Arising out of Police Action” (13.06.2017)

Uganda: UPF Circular – “Arresting People for the Offence of Idle and Disorderly” (13.06.2017)

#SOTNUG17: A look into the Policing the NRM Way!

He was at it again for the 31^st time or 30^th since he didn’t do this in first year after the coup d’etat. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. That being the old-man-with-the-hat having his first State of the Union in 1987. Times are changing but he is still not caring about facts or using his tricks to make himself look like a genius and savior. Even if there are far from it and makes sure the others are to blame. That is what President Museveni do. Therefore, I am just looking at parts of his speech, since there are many details and many things you could put a finger on and discuss. As it could be as simple as explaining the roads funds and research the pledged roads, which he said today was all paid by Government of Uganda (GoU), while if you look over the previous funding of the roads you would see the money might be foreign. Instead, I will look the security issues, the torture and the Policing. Because it is so important and the man trust IGP Kale Kayihura so much, who has made the Police a long-arm of the ruling regime. With that in mind, I had to focus on this and not on all the other subjects that the President spoke about. Take a look!

“The Police do not have to wait for the crime to be committed. Through good intelligence, most crimes can be prevented. Most of the suspects arrested after the murder of Kawesi and others, even if they were not involved in the killing of Kawesi, they had committed other capital offences, many of which carry death sentences or life imprisonment. Why, then, were they still in circulation? That means somebody was not doing his or her work” (Museveni, 2017).

Mr. President, why wasn’t these men caught for the other cases, than the murder case of the AIGP Andrew Kaweesi. This case has been public and there been an awesome amount of possible suspects. These has been hundreds and even the kids of suspects has been detained. Therefore, that all of these might have other crimes on their hands, that might be true, but still they all could be innocent. So the President has decided their fate without trial, which is a rare, but common practice by the President.

“The other day, I was in Kalerwe and the youth there were complaining of the Police arresting them for being “idle and disorderly”. This must stop completely. Some of the youth are idle because they do not have jobs. Why arrest them for that? The revolutionary should be like “fish in water”. A revolutionary should never be “fish in no water”” (Museveni, 2017).

As seen how the Police are working there are reports and studies on the subject, as the Police are the long-hand of the regime under the President. This can be quoted by: “One sub-county official explained that the activities of crime preventers are handled at the village level and news of them doesn’t reach his office, while another said they are too informal to discuss in a semi-structured interview with me. What happens in the village is not of concern, so long as it is not organized violent crime or resistance to the government. Although security groups are framed as local responses to local problems, the government retains the right to intervene and police their activities, frequently making arrests in relation to groups’ night patrols, the degree of force they employ and the appropriateness of their involvement in interpersonal conflicts” (Tapscott, 2017). So the are local policing that are framing the locals. These seems like the ones the President are talking about. Just similar stories even made the Police themselves in April 2017: “Tools like pangas, hammers and pick axes were provided to carry out their missions. The suspects also said that, the many youths were collected from parts of Kawempe Kalerwe Namugoona among others areas specifically to break into houses and once you were in the gang there was no way out. The IGP said criminals have used crime to be a business venture, and after the tension caused by these goons the police has taken action, and over 100 arrested and 50 appeared before court. Since then areas of Masaka are secure” (Uganda Police Force, 2017). So there apparently gangs, that are idle and unemployed as well. Certainly, there could be incidents where the police detain and arrest youths as a way of extorting them, since the payment for being a Police Officer in Uganda isn’t that splendid. This has been reported a lot of times and stories been told on the social media from all parts of Uganda.

“The issue of alleged torture by the Police, was addressed by myself in the usual NRM/NRA way. We always combine educational methods (sensitization) and administrative methods (punishments, demotions, etc,). When these reports came up, I carried out analysis of torture and how it, actually, impedes successful investigations. That is a very powerful message because it addresses the whys and the why-nots of an issue. It addresses the “Policeman of the mind” rather than just the “Policeman of the body”. I saw some NGOs and allied persons pouring scorn on my methods and recommending only fascist methods of arrests and imprisonment without education. Could these “experts in-everything” tell us why the UPDF is able to operate in Somalia, Central African Republic, Congo, South Sudan, etc. without complaining? Is it because of high pay or fear of imprisonment? Do these “know-it-alls” remember that our Army is a volunteer Army? Do they know that one can make much more money in the private sector than in the army? it, actually, impedes successful investigations. That is a very powerful message because it addresses the whys and the why-nots of an issue. It addresses the “Policeman of the mind” rather than just the “Policeman of the body”. I saw some NGOs and allied persons pouring scorn on my methods and recommending only fascist methods of arrests and imprisonment without education. Could these “experts in-everything” tell us why the UPDF is able to operate in Somalia, Central African Republic, Congo, South Sudan, etc. without complaining? Is it because of high pay or fear of imprisonment? Do these “know-it-alls” remember that our Army is a volunteer Army? Do they know that one can make much more money in the private sector than in the army? Let the “know-it-alls” be informed that the UPDF does what it does because of conviction. Okunyonyora (to explain, to sensitize) has been the life and blood of Fronasa, of the NRA, of the UPDF. To end this point, be informed that Uganda is free of war and it will remain so and the spike in lawlessness is being defeated even before we fill all the gaps and will be totally defeated when the gaps are filled” (Musveni, 2017).

The NRM Way are clearly not a healthy one, even if this is reported through the wits of NGO’s who know’s to much and cannot be trusted. This is what the President himself said. Because the UPDF are such wiseguys, since they are there voluntarily, But here is some quick reports of the torture, that has been also rampant part of the security organizations at places like Nalufenya. So this has been a discussed theme, but show’s the part of how the State in Uganda uses the Police Force and also other organizations in oppressive behavior.

Like these two reports: 

“In similar fashion, presently, there is the recruitment of persons, undergoing rigorous training for purported legal purposes. Under the auspices of the Uganda Police, ‘crime preventers’ are being recruited and trained, ofcially, to fght crime.14 However, a critical assessment of this group reveals that it is a band of civilian vigilantes recruited by the government aimed at intimidating or reducing support for the political opposition through illegal means, including torture” (Chapter Four, P: 13, 2016).

“Various reports indicate the following as some of the patterns of torture in Uganda.

i) Being held incommunicado – where a person is arrested, detained and no access is allowed and no opportunity to communicate with other people.

ii) Extra-judicial executions – where suspects are executed without going through the due process of law and in most cases where they lack sufficient evidence on a case.

iii) Threats and intimidation through text messages and phone calls.

iv) Enforced disappearance – where a person is arrested in context of terrorism and treason suspects then disappears with trace and explanation.

v) Cases of rape by government and rebel forces during the conflict in Northern Uganda” (ACTV, P: 21, 2015).

This is just the sensitization and the NRM way of torture, that is well-known, so when the President speaks so found of his army. I have a hard time believing him or trusting his words. Seems more like promising words and praising of UPDF. Since it solves everything, the Operation Wealth Creation are even parts of the UPDF. That should make you think and also consider the places of the army. Since the army and police force aren’t only there for security reasons, but also for political reasons. That is why the President has to praise the army.

I think this is enough for now! Peace.

Reference:

African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (ACTV) – ‘THE SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ON THE PREVALENCE OF TORTURE IN UGANDA’ (November 2015)

Chapter Four – ‘Free Expression and Assembly in Peril ahead of 2016 Polls’ (2016)

Tapscott, Rebecca – ‘The Government Has Long Hands: Institutionalized Arbitrariness and Local Security Initiatives in Northern Uganda’ (06.03.2017) link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dech.12294/full

Uganda Police Force – ‘MASAKA, KAMPALA CRIMINALS GANGS HAVE CONFESSED’ (24.04.2017) link: http://www.upf.go.ug/masaka-kampala-criminals-gangs-confessed/

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni – ‘State of The Nation Address’ – Republic of Uganda, Kampala (06.06.2017)

Deliberately without thinking, Mwenda ‘spilled the beans’ of the NRM Police State!

It takes to two to tango, and it takes many hands to destroy a community, but it does not take many to usher in policies. Therefore, in the mix of Ugandan politics and with time the Police has added significance, as the IGP Kale Kayihura has many times told how to hold consultant meetings and even been teaching journalist how to do their jobs. This is in the effort to stifle the opposition and their mission to prove their viable candidates over the only man with a vision. Mr. President, His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, he who Kayihura is so loyal too. So certainly, the Independent and Mwenda without thinking in his praise of the political police sessions and the use of the Police Force to either create an unlawful arrest, harass them and even obstruct political dissidents in their rallies. Let’s take the words of Mwenda himself for a minute.

“Hence, Kayihura’s most critical role has been to transform the police into an arm of the NRM. He secured for Museveni the loyalty of a major security institution that had been independent of NRM politics, hence reducing the role of the army in quelling protests. Kayihura did for Museveni what Central Bank governor, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile did for IMF. Mutebile converted Museveni into a free market ideologue, thereby turning a Marxist revolutionary into an agent of imperialism” (…) “This masterstroke significantly shrunk the role of ISO and CMI in the soft game of consolidating Museveni’s power. Kayihura’s success here has come at the price of reduced emphasis on criminal investigations, hence negatively impacting the rate of its professional development in the force. However, overall Kayihura’s strategy has bolstered the position of the Uganda police politically, making it a powerful centre of power” (Mwenda, 2017).

The thing that strikes me and should strike anyone who cares about justice or free and fair policing. Is that he is saying it is a good thing, that the Police Force is embedded with the ruling regime. The development under IGP Kayihura is so that the Police get better control because they work directly for the NRM. Not that Police works for the Ugandans or after its supposed constitutions and laws, but for the mercy of the NRM. That is unique and shows how oppressive the mind of Mwenda has become. If not he has become subdued by the NRM and is now the grand apologist.

This sentence should boggle anyone with a sound mind: “Kayihura’s success here has come at the price of reduced emphasis on criminal investigations”, well Mr. Mwenda is not the Police Force supposed to catch criminals and do criminal investigations. Certainly, if it was an arm of a Political Party it would have other functions, but the UPF or Police Force are supposed to solve criminal activity and monitor that. They should not need to look and see, if Olara Otunnu are buying cassava, Norbert Mao feeding his chickens or be part of the convoy of Jennifer Musisi. That is just me though. Peace

Reference:

Mwenda, Andrew – ‘THE LAST WORD: Why Kayihura remains IGP’ (22.05.2017) link: https://www.independent.co.ug/last-word-kayihura-remains-igp/2/

The Calvary’s villain Kayihura gets a renewed contract to harass and intimidate the public until 2020!

Again and again, the cronies and loyal head honcho’s are usually put in order so that the Wonderful Dictator has his check and balances in order. So that the Republic is following his drum and his vision. The man who follows the orders of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his ruling regime. The National Resistance Movement (NRM) have not used the Police Force only to fight crime, but more to intimidate the political opponents and the media.

Therefore that his contract was renewed until 2020 wasn’t unexpected, as Museveni wants a loyal man in charge of the Police, to do his dirty-work and stand on the front-line taking all the heat. That is what the Police Spokesperson does and what the IGP Kayihura does. Even with the backlog of cases going far back into history and pending treason charges on high-profile individuals like Obusingwa bwa Rwenzururu Charles Wesley Mumbere and Dr. Kizza Besigye. He still gets renewed without anything else to show, that he at least kept the Opposition more silent and has in his time killed of demonstrations!

So the IGP Kayihura, the ruthless man who leads the Police Force, who has embezzled funds and is as mafia as it can be, are now in charge for longer. While murders, abductions and threats are getting more common. As con-men and thieves are continuing rooming, as the state fails on its duty. While the Army and President has supreme power over them all. So he can use the relationship and the knowledge of how Kayihura uses the Police Force to misspend monies to gain fortunes. Therefore, because of the knowledge of the ICT scandal and others proves that those allocated maladministration is pay-off for the loyalty between them. A conniving man as the President, needs to hang around similar crowds and people, who also wants to eat of the State Reserves, if there is a self-righteous individual, than he might whistle-blow and show the secrets in public. None of these fellas like that!

A little history to why he became appointed IGP in the first place:

“The appointment last month of Maj-Gen Kale Kaihura as IGP has been met with some indignation. A man seen as a military hardliner close to State House, Kaihura has long been a Museveni assistant, either commanding operations in Congo or Sudan, in the Revenue Authority, or acting as Chief Political Commissar for the army. Opposition politicians believe the army is being sent to the police to help the regime rig the 2006 elections. But they say that the government is breaking the law in the creation of shadow forces. Part of the reason for the ongoing expansion of the police force ahead of the 2006 elections are the inadequacies noted in the last presidential and parliamentary elections. At the time, it was reported that the police force was only about 15,000 strong. This number was expected to man 17,000 polling stations at the time. The Parliamentary Report on election violence in the 2001 polls said the disparity was used as an excuse for bringing other armed forces into the elections” (Kaiza, 2005).

I am sure no-one else has gotten the ill-educated police force to detain more Opposition and civil activist than the Police Force under IGP Kayihura. He must have had wet-dreams on the day the Public Order Management Act came into effect, it gave him so much more powers than the colonial laws or even the Penal Code! Man, nobody has interpreted and founds ways of getting people detained for being part of political activity. While he himself has been the shadow and the proud leader at NRM festivities. Like the Police Force are only for them and not for public safety.

The IGP have used force, violence against civilians and hit on public when in need. They have tear-gassed so many and imported anti-riot gear for massive amount funds. While the schools are in a sorry state and the hospitals lack medicines. You know that his department and agency is important in the NRM regime and under President Museveni.

IGP Kayihura is a key figure and the man who has no quarrel to silence the media nor the opposition. He can let killers go loose, let public violators and others roam the streets. This has been proven with the tactical training of thousands of Crime Preventers who has gone far intimidate and harass the public. This together are together with the small-gangs vicious attempt of justice, that turns into public display of injustice.

Like the story of the Investigator Ronald Leonard Egesa:

“Yesterday, as I drove along Bombo Rd to go and attend a family engagement, I was kidnapped by overzealous operatives purportedly working on behalf of the Police leadership. They blindfolded me, drove my car away and detained me in a house that I suspect to be in Naguru or Muyenga” (…) “After midnight, a bulky figure only referred to as ‘afande’ appeared to interrogate me. In our exchange, he was pushing me to tell them who is using me and other journalists to fight Gen. Kale Kayihura and the Police. I politely asked him to go through my phone contacts and call log. After this, he simply remarked that it seems things are complicated. He stepped out, worked his phone and came back to ask if I wanted to leave. It was 1 am and I could not trust my captors to safely deliver me to town in the dead of the night. I asked to be released in the morning after 7 am” (…) “’Safe’ houses are back. Panda Gari might slowly be returning. The philosopher said that ‘there is nothing new under the sun’ I know very many comrades, distinguished officers and men who are now ashamed to be serving in the current Uganda Police Force” (The Investigator, 02.05.2017).

So this is the Police Force that has returned under IGP Kayihura and President Museveni. This sort of affairs and brigades that uncontrolled and does their own justice, which in turns edges the tyranny, as the journalists and opposition members are under-fire because of them. The Police are impartial and used as a tool of oppression. Both Museveni and Kayihura knows it. Therefore, Museveni pay back for the loyalty, even as the Public is tired of Kayihura and his own understanding of justice.

The serving and trust to the Police isn’t there, they are coming spawning to eat of the ones they pass by, with orders and bills for the ones who are near. Making minor offenses into murder if they could. The Police Force and Police Command wants to control the public, not keep them safe, but monitor the elements that are issues to the State House. The knowledge of the intelligence gathering and the tapping of the citizens. Together with all sort tricks and illegal activity around Kasangeti and around the other opposition parties. So the Police Force are not there for the people, but for the President, alone!

So was it surprising the man who is doing the dirty work for Museveni and done it for so, long would get to do it longer? Well, I am not surprised about it all. What would be more surprising if the President and hired someone honest and who would secure true safety, but that is Museveni’s goal anyway?

Museveni’s goal is to have power and keep power by every means necessary and at total price, even destroying all civilian life and civil society, as journalism and opposition, also other who questions the powers of the government as NGO’s who has been robbed and destroyed. Without anyone taken to court or charged for the petty theft. That is the Uganda under the National Resistance Movement (NRM)… the steady progress of safe houses, abduction of people who questions the powers to be and the others who are near people of opposition. Might get hit by sticks, live-bullets and tear-gas, because the Police is for the NRM and not for the Public Safety. That is the paradigm under Museveni and Kayihura, as he has extended his contract, don’t expect them to change quick. As the volatile state of affairs isn’t quitting shortly, as the wonderful dictator needs people to respect his authority and not his just hands. Peace.

Reference:

Kaiza, David – ‘Growing concern as Ugandan army ‘infiltrates’ police force’ (24.11.2005) link: http://humanrightshouse.org/noop/page.php?p=Articles/6974.html&d=1

Uganda: Police denies being involved in recent community attacks as one of the paraded suspects claimed yesterday (25.04.2017)

IGP Kale Kayihura full speech at the Crime Preventers pass out at Seibei College on the 21st January 2016

The Woman MP Kapchorwa, the Aspiring MP, the RDC, I am overwhelmed by your presence on this day, when we are beginning the sports gala organized by the UPF. It is a two day event where we are honoring and celebrating the people of Sebei as well as other parts of Uganda, which have produced athletes that have won gold medals and other medals and brought honor to the country. It would have been done a bit earlier, but we have done it now, especially we police, because you have given us your children and they are winning gold medals, in both international and regional championships, and as well, brought honor to the police, as well as to the country. We would have it in Kampala, but we said we had to do it with the families of the athletes and the community. And so that is the reason we are here.

Today is the beginning; we saw it appropriate to combine it with the pass out of crime preventers who are passing out in this region. I would like to thank them for having turned up and responded to our call in such big numbers, 65000 is not a small number. RDCs of Kapchorwa, Kween, and Bukwo, I don’t know how many police officers you have there in uniform and if we are to deploy them, I don’t think we can confidently say we can fight crime. But with the resource of 65000 crime preventers and you have seen what they have shown to you in two months, because this means a lot, it means fitness, it shows a team which is organized, so this is our force and in case you are attacked from across, but I don’t think it can happen, now we have got a force to deal with them. All we need to do is to change the sticks and give them rifles and by the way I would like to tell you this, you are a reserve of the army, in case of war, you will be called upon because the police are the reserve of the army, according to the law.

According to the Police Act, the Minister of Internal Affairs, at any time, can call the police to serve as a military force, so by extension the crime preventers in case of any a war, can be called upon. And that’s why they should be trained in skills at arm and self defense, so that you have a force here. And by the way, this is a continuation where it started in our neighborhood zone, in the fight against state inspired terrorism of Idi Amin, through the struggles of Mr. Sabila and FRONASA who fought against Idi Amin and won. So what people are trying to vulgarize and confuse, started long time ago in 1977, in the fight against Idi Amin, when they empowered people to fight against crime in government. And at that time Idi Amin was killing people, Maliyamungu, and so they mobilized the people, and fought with the support of Tanzania. Then later, after the Idi Amin dictatorship, they fought terrorism in the government after 1981, where some patriots went to the bush. This was by mobilizing people to fight the government which had the support of the most powerful countries in the world and removed it after five years.

We are celebrating 30 years next week and the victory of the people’s war. So when I went to the police and found the idea of this community policing, neighborhood watch, I said I will organize the ordinary people to fight crime and criminals and if you see in all communities, in all districts, the criminals are few, but they are organized, where as the law abiding citizens are many but are not organized. So the whole idea is organizing at the neighborhood level and empowering them with self defense and other skills as the surest way of eliminating crime.

For instance every year when we issue Annual Crime Report, the biggest crime is defilement and domestic violence, and the victims are women and girls. So the answer to that is the taekwondo you see here, and we want this program to develop in schools like this Sebei college, especially, to empower the girls because we can not have enough police to police everybody.

Even the UN ratio says 1 police to 500 people, so you can never have enough police to ensure security. So it is only through people participation that you can effectively deal with the crime. So for this program, those who criticize it don’t understand what they are talking about and I want to pay tribute to those who have volunteered.

It is a volunteers program and that is what it is all about and I think our political leaders try to confuse it. And they have even misinformed our friends, the Europeans and Americans that even when they come here; they come asking for crime preventers. They think crime preventers are a group who cause mayhem at the rallies. If you go to America you find crime preventers yet they have a bigger police force and resources than us the 3rd world countries. Am very very grateful to H.E the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and even Parliament, who have come up very clearly to say no, this is a legitimate program, it is constitutional , lawful , it is empowering , its improving strength of the country .

These people who are talking, some of them are ignorant, and I am suspicious they want our country to remain disorganized and weak, so that they can swallow us, especially when they have heard there is oil. You know when they talk about the oil curse, what they mean. So the government is very clear on this matter and nobody should even waste our time because this is a democratic policing. We are empowering ourselves, the community, to fight criminals in the neighborhood. I don’t know even whom they vote and it’s not my business. Mine is special that the country is secure 24/7.

The other day there was some Human Rights Watch lady and she is even my friend, who came to ask me and even made a statement that we suspend crime preventers. And my response was, “ok if you want me to suspend crime preventers you should also suspend the criminals”, but will not suspend the crime preventers because the criminal’s are there.

So I will go deep in this, but most important is, this is a program of the police nobody should confuse. We have a department of community policing headed by a Commissioner who reports to Chief Political Commissioner of Police. She is called CP Namutebi, so it is not a grump just there which we disown and they have got an organization right from national level, district, county and sub county, up to the village. And we are trying to link it to the LC system and “mayumba kumi”. We want to revise the “mayumba kumi”.

So I don’t know how many villages are in Sebei region? So it is times 30 which will be a big force, I have tasked the Director Ochom of Research and Planning, to in the 5 year strategic plan, come out clearly on this matter of the recruitment and training of crime preventers, and we see how we expect to be by 2021. And I hope by that time we shall have 300 crime preventers per village in Sebei region, meaning each village will have two companies to defend it against criminals and vanish these people, the so called “kanyama”, who beat people and steal goats, chicken, cows and sheep which we survive on. We want Uganda to create a crime free society on this idea and nobody will stop us as long as we have the responsibility of keeping this country safe and secure.

Crime preventers you are doing things out of charity, I want to thank you because you are volunteering, you are more enlightened, that may be the others don’t know, that it is in your interest to keep your neighborhood watch and your community safe and secure. So I don’t need to pay you to keep your home. In the bush, I was not given a salary and I want to pay tribute to you because you have joined us to work out of conviction that whatever you do in the community is real serving and is also in your interest.

The President would wish to come to pass you like he has done it in other parts like the Elgon region but is very busy on other programs and even tomorrow, he would want to come but has delegated the Prime Minster of Uganda, because he appreciates the importance of this cause.

I just want to pay tribute to you for joining the effort, but it is not for nothing. We can’t give you salary because you are in millions; right now we have got 11 million throughout the country. The police are only 43000 and crime preventers are 11 million, but they have made a big difference in the whole country. We can’t pay you salary but you are going to get projects, this is real, so that as you serve, you have projects which can bring income to you at the same time you are liberating the country.

As police we shall share the little we have, you have got a very good SACCO and if this SACCO works, it will be a vehicle through which you can get more support.

We are trying to get you identification and this will be equivalent to a police warrant card, I can’t promise when, but it is in the making, as well as uniforms, torches, gumboots and watches. As I said, this is just the beginning of the sports gala, we will say more about sports tomorrow, but today was dedicated to passing out the 65000 crime preventers in the Sipi region.

Tomorrow it is going to be the main day where we shall begin at 6 O’clock, with a 10 km run and I will participate in the 10 km race. And I invite all of you to participate; including all crime preventers although I am passing them out today. If you fail to participate, I may have to reconsider because this should be your routine. We are determined to change and swipe all the gold medals the other side of the border in Kenya and bring them to this side of the boarder.

Thanks to your children. It is now my pleasure to declare the course of crime preventers in Sebei region complete and to pass you out as crime preventers of this region, Uganda Police.