Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister, Gen Kahinda Otafiire, was recently quoted as having told crime preventers that it was their duty to ensure the hard-earned political stability is not erased by candidates whom he allegedly said have no capacity to become president.
This is against a backdrop of television pictures of youth in Mbarara District, under cover of darkness, pulling down posters of presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi.
The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, refers to crime preventers as “refined community policing”. With a staggering 83 per cent youth unemployment rate in Uganda, the potential for discontent and restlessness, cannot be overlooked.
This can breed a multi-headed hydra devouring country and neighbours. According to the National Crime Preventers Forum (NCPF) website, the crime preventers’ forum was launched in 2013 by the President, after he realised youth unemployment could be ‘politically manipulated’ by the Opposition or possibly become a security threat to the country, given the youths’ numeric strength. So, the President sought to have the youths “politically groomed”.
When in a country of 35 million, 11 million are crime preventers, the number targeted by the police, then every other person becomes a big brother watching over the neighbour.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 6.5 million Ugandans are in the age bracket of 18-30 and the figure was projected to grow to 7.7 million by the end of 2015.
Today, reports say, NCPF has an active website, a weekly newsletter and runs Mwangaza Sacco, which they claim currently has 5,672 members in 12 districts.
Nazi Germany
Attempts to harness the energies of mass youth unemployment have led to some of the most unfortunate episodes of human history.
The most devastating example was the Hitler-Jugend (Hitler Youth), which was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. By 1930, the Hitler-Jugend had enlisted more than 25,000 boys aged 14 and above, set up a junior branch for boys aged 10 to 14 and the league of German girls aged from 10 to 18.
The Hitler Youth were viewed as future supermen and were indoctrinated into racism and eugenics, with emphasis on physical and military training rather than on academic study. To motivate them to fight faithfully for Nazi Germany, they would interfere with church attendance and other organisations.
The Hitler Youth were organised into local cells on a community level. Such cells had weekly meetings at which various Nazi doctrines were taught. Regional leaders typically organised rallies and field exercises in which several dozen Hitler Youth cells would participate.
There were more than 300 basic units spread throughout German, each with a strength of about 6,000 youth. Each unit carried a flag of almost identical design, but the individual unit was identified by its number, displayed in black on a yellow scroll above the eagle’s head.
In April 1932, Chancellor Heinrich Brüning banned the Hitler Youth movement in an attempt to stop widespread political violence.
But in June, Brüning’s successor Franz von Papen lifted the ban as a way of appeasing Hitler, the rapidly ascending political star, and much time and large amounts of money were poured into the project.
The Hitler Youth regularly issued the wille und macht (will and power) monthly magazine, its official organ. With the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the organisation ceased to exist.
East German Stasi
With the end of the World War II and the advent of the East West Cold War, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), colloquially known as East Germany, set up the ministry for state security, commonly known as the Stasi in 1950 with headquarters in East Berlin, a surveillance system which has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies to have ever existed.
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