Security forces also have the right to self defence

By Mary Karooro Okurut

On the whole, we had a generally peaceful electoral period - look at the presidential, parliamentary and local government elections - throughout Uganda. People were able to campaign freely and voters came out in numbers to cast the vote.

The only bloat on this period is possibly the post-election clashes in Kasese District which have left several people dead and others - including members of the Uganda Police Force - injured.

Truth, as has always been said, is the first casualty of conflict. So there will be all kinds of reports coming through, each with possibly its own version of events, depending on who is telling the story of course (and what their ultimate motive is). In an age of rampant social media, some people have gone into very creative mode, telling wild stories, backed by pictures of those killed and drawing unhealthy and unwarranted conclusions about the integrity and intentions of the Government and the security agencies (police, army and intelligence) which are an arm of the state.

These are the usual detractors who will always jump on every opportunity to throw mud at the Government. They remind one of the days of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) brutality: whenever Joseph Kony's thugs would destroy say a bus full of people, there were those who would rejoice saying that he had scored against the Government! Talk of evil minds…thank God they are not that many.

Kasese-map.jpg

The correct information on record, details of which have already been provided by the Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura is that four people were killed when they attacked a posse of the Uganda Police Force on duty in the area.

Over the last 30 years, since the National Resistance Movement (NRM) assumed office, the security agencies have never been known to prowl and kill innocent citizens, because the President has always maintained that that is one of the very evils he went to fight against when the liberation war kicked off.

What is also clear and uncontestable is that the group of youth that numbered 20 or so according to official reports were not coming to say hello to the Police or to accord them any kind of hospitality. The fact that they attacked the custodians of law and order with machetes, knives, clubs and stones - none of which weapons belong to your regular massage parlour - shows that they came for no other reason than to kill those that are mandated to protect the citizens. It should be said here that an attack against the legitimate protectors of the people who are moreover in the course of protecting the unsuspecting members of the public, is in effect an attack on the people themselves.

It should be further said here too that the Police are not made out of anything special by way of ‘building material' - they are made of flesh and blood. They too, when force is applied on them, can die like any other human being….and they have died on several occasions which I need not enumerate here. People need to appreciate that the right to self-defence, which is observed universally, is enjoyed by every human being who is under attack.

It is not written anywhere (check any country on the planet) that security agencies should simply sit still and smile when they are under lethal attack by armed citizens. That is why the Police, when attacked, have a right and indeed a duty to protect themselves. The law of course places a restraint on the part of the Police, when dealing with citizens: they should employ ‘reasonable force' when arresting people and in cases of responding to attacks, the response must be commensurate with the level of threat.

You look at the facts in Kasese and are left in no doubt that the Police acted legitimately and fairly under the circumstances. Their response avoided headlines of the wrong kind: it is always a sad day for citizens when their protectors are killed, because then they begin to feel vulnerable.

As matter of fact, citizens should get very concerned when members of the security agencies are killed like lambs for slaughter; it should be a basis of losing confidence in such public defenders.

Some of our people, however, need to be educated or brought into the know about how security agencies operate - because they seem to labour under the illusion that the Police and the army can be attacked but they have no right to respond. Part of the problem is more or less ‘self-inflicted', in the sense that this Government has a pro-people policy that permeates even the security agencies.

Unlike the previous regimes whose armed forces actively turned on the people, they were supposed to protect and unleashed untold violence to the point of robbing, looting, killing, maiming and jailing; the NRM government - even during the bush war days before it ascended into power - oriented the security agencies as servants and friends of the people.

That has always been the general rule. Even in the bush, stories abound of severe sanctions suffered by combatants who were found guilty of harming the people outside combat situations. And for the last 30 years of the NRM government, soldiers and the Police officers who have breached this rule have been punished severely.

Ugandans now know that for the first time in their history, the security agencies are on their side; possibly that is why they take them for granted and think they can beat them up any day of the week. I contend so, because in previous regimes it was unthinkable to attack the armed forces - not even when you were in suicidal mood.

It was equally unheard of for people to sue government because of the conduct of the soldiers or the Police officers - such a case would never see the light of day. Neither the judge nor the complainant would expect to live any longer than they already had. But now with a proper government in charge, you suspect it is this friendly attitude on the part of security agencies that some people are taking for granted.

The Inspector General of Police (IDP), Gen. Kale Kayihura

It is on record that the Rwenzori region unfortunately has a history of scattered clashes rooted in ethnic disagreements. Last year, for example, more than 100 people were arrested and prosecuted in the military courts over ethnic clashes.

The Government is working with the local communities best to resolve and mitigate these conflicts. Investigations are still underway to ascertain what exactly was behind the most recent clashes…and a peaceful and amicable resolution will surely be found.

But even as the Government does its part, everybody in the community should know that security begins with you and I; we should work together to ensure that peace is restored, for in conflict nobody wins - everybody loses.

The writer is the Uganda's Minister for Security and spokesperson of the National Resistance Movement Party and also the Woman Member of Parliament for Bushenyi District