Uganda Police Force has caused quite a commotion. The indiscriminate violence the Force visits on the supporters, curious onlookers and by-standers they find on road as they follow FDC’s Kizza Besigye is alarming.
It became so bad that in a bid to save face, the police decided to publicly try some of its officers in their disciplinary court.
But that did not deter the police. The latest video clip that has gone viral on social media is of a police patrol truck running over a man as he cheers on Besigye. For good measure, a man in civilian attire, follows up the man with a kick as he painfully rolls on the ground.
It is unlikely that the police will discard this form of ‘crowd control’. After all, the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, praised it as a method that is better than bullets and tear gas. He confessed to allowing his men to use sticks to cane people.
In understanding the latest way of police viciousness, one has to visit the origin of the NRM government. NRM was birthed out of illegitimate circumstances.
When the election of 1980 was allegedly rigged, UPM headed by Yoweri Museveni did not go to the courts of law. They decided to take the law into their own hands by going to the bush to fight the UPC government. It came to pass in January 1986 when NRA/M kicked out the Military Junta headed by Gen Tito Okello (RIP). Gen Okello had pushed Obote out on July 27, 1985, in a military takeover.
The five-year war from 1981-1986 succeeded partly because it relied mainly on side-stepping the law for speedy results and convenience. If it was arms needed, the rebels stole them. If it was money, they looted banks. They waylaid government vehicles and forcefully took other properties for the sake of the struggle.
When revolutionary movements go beyond their ‘mandate’ of ridding a country of dictators by perpetuating themselves in power, they usually become abusive as far as human rights are concerned. This is mainly because they have a know it all attitude as the group which saved the country and that gives them a misguided sense of entitlement.
Old habits die hard. Because working outside the law helped the so-called revolutionary governments to ascend to power, it becomes difficult for them to take the law very seriously. They will always need the window of illegitimacy to achieve many of their aims.
The law is then likely to be used for the sake of expediency. For instance, if an Opposition politician knocks dead a boda boda rider, then the traffic police will read him the law to the letter.
That is how we have come to this point. It is more than the police taking sides in the matter of Dr Kizza Besigye who says his victory was stolen and Mr Yoweri Museveni, who views Besigye as a usurper.
The NRM has overhauled the police it found in 1986. The new Force has been built to fit into the revolutionary arrangement that brought NRM to power. It was violence that delivered NRM the promised land. Asking the NRM and its coercive arms like the police to divorce themselves from violence is like asking mother wolf to give birth to a lamb.
So the Force is well equipped with guns, vehicles and all paraphernalia for good ‘physical’ policing. But it is short on the side of prosecution.
The culture of using the law to lead to a punishment of and offender is lacking. That capacity has not been built because you can’t do it selectively. It is something that requires patience and honesty. If you do not believe in the law whole heartedly, it can’t work for you only when you need it.
That is why we have had demonstrations and riots over the last 15 years with several arrests made, but you have hardly a case prosecuted to its logical conclusion.
Most of the cases have been dismissed. The police are almost clueless as far as gathering evidence and finding credible witnesses is concerned.
The last resort is to achieve summary justice on the streets by working far away from the courts of law.
To rise in the ranks in such an environment, the more vicious one is, the higher the chances of promotion. It is more about muscle than brain.
The beatings they are administering are a show of weakness and an admission of failure to use the law. Brutality is a convenient shortcut.
Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. nicholassengoba@yahoo.com
Twitter: @nsengoba
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