In Summary
The debate we should have, Pastor Bwanika, is not black books but casting out ‘evil spirits’ from Uganda Police Force!
Like many Ugandans, Pastor Abed Bwanika thinks we have a normal police. While in Kayunga Town on his campaign trail, he revealed his plan for the Uganda Police Force. He intends to provide a black book – probably at every district – so that we can write the names of and record using our phone cameras, the officers violating rights and freedoms. This will, apparently, lead to prosecution of the culprits and our police officers shall hopefully turn angelic.
Dr Bwanika, like other presidential candidates, is yet to tell Ugandans his plans of transforming one of the most unpopular institutions in the country, the Uganda Police Force. The issue of tear gas, for instance, is simply symptomatic of a more structural, fundamental problem within the Force that cannot be cured by a black book. It needs a process of deliverance; to free the Force from the various bad ‘spirits’ that hold it hostage. As the pastor may know, theologically, some people, when afflicted by strange ‘spirits’, cease to act in their own will. They need exorcism of such ‘spirits’ to be free.
Currently, the gallant officers of the Uganda Police Force that we lambast every day find themselves under siege from mainly five ‘spirits’: Ideological disorientation (regime policing); militarisation; draconian police structure dismantling; impunity and protectionism; survivalism and corruption; and a systematic financial siege aimed at disabling professionalism and enhancing coerciveness.
Let us begin with militarisation. For some years now, we have witnessed with minimal protest as the Force took on a largely militaristic character through the appointment of military officers to head the institution. Their training too is grounded more in military approaches to police civilians.
Great initiatives such as community policing have been hijacked and being used to sneak in amorphous militia-type groups of unemployed, vulnerable youth in the name of crime preventers. District police commanders just receive instructions to train these youth with no curriculum that is national in nature; no clear purpose but just train and pass them out.
Protesting this militaristic approach of policing is dubbed sabotage and anti-government.
This militarism has been fronted with very interesting arguments that appeal to an unsuspecting public. We have been told that the police have to militarise to respond to crime that has taken a military nature. In the sense of the police leadership, it is better to react by militarising than pro-act with increased professional intelligence-led crime prevention.
Common civilian policing approaches such as dialogue have given way to more militant methodologies of confrontation. Thus the liberal and arguably the old guard of professional police officers with humane touch when dealing with the community are increasingly being alienated to give way to the new breed of ‘confrontionalists’. An officer, Alphonse Mutabazi, who decided to escort Opposition leaders during the walk-to -work campaign and succeeded at keeping public peace, was suspended and transferred to an oblivion unit.
The behaviour of the new crop of police officers has been laid bare, characterised by excessive use of force as depicted in various arrests of Opposition politicians. Militarisation of the Force, the effects of which we are suffering, cannot be dispensed off with a black book as Bwanika suggests. It demands total ‘deliverance’ of these officers now under siege from ‘evil spirits’. The debate we should have, Pastor Bwanika, is not black books but casting out ‘evil spirits’ from Uganda Police Force!
Mr Nkuubi is a member of the Network for Public Interest Lawyers and works with HURINET-U. luyombyajames@gmail.com
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