Katumba Nets Police Drunks

Jan 22, 2002

EXPERIMENTS are usually carried out in laboratories. Test tubes, chemicals and specimen are a must.

By Geoffrey KamaliEXPERIMENTS are usually carried out in laboratories. Test tubes, chemicals and specimen are a must. But Police chief Major General Katumba Wamala is not given to such niceties. To net habitual drunkards among his 15,000-strong force, he took the experiment where it belongs—the field. His apparatus was breath analysers. The specimen, 41 Police officers randomly picked from the Mobile Police Patrol Unit (MPPU). The laboratory was the Mandela National Stadium. The chief lab supervisor was none other than Wamala himself who also took the alcohol test. He passed it. Top Police chiefs Benjamin Namanya and Fred Iga were present.The five-hour experiment involved test tubes containing a yellow chemical. Each officer had to breathe into the test tube for 12 seconds each. If the chemical turned green, you were guilty. Some officers got away with slight variations in colour of the breath analysers—perhaps indicating that they are moderate drinkers. That was the first hurdle before seven officers dropped out.“We are trying to find fellows who have been giving the Police a bad image. We selected a few from MPPU but this exercise will go on in phases all over the country,” Katumba Wamala said.He said the Police appointments committee would decide the fate of those found to be a liability.Katumba has ordered Police chiefs to compile a list of Police drunkards.Other tests included a two kilometre race which the remaining 34 officers all passed, with a lot of difficulty.The Police officers were also exposed to vigorous body-hurdles, bending, while others jumped over them. These, they also passed. Other drills included sit-ups, frog-jumping, press-ups and standing on one leg for a couple of minutes. Most officers hardly survived for 3 minutes.But Katumba Wamala was not yet done. He made a group of constables, corporals and sergeants to creep under a line of barbed wire, tied at a very low level, only for the fit to go through. The wire was tied to two poles.The going was getting tougher and three officers shook their heads in apparent defeat. The officers were lucky to have a cloudy and cool afternoon on their side. They conducted a mock rescue mission of a person threatened by a mob. The drill required an officer to jump over a crowd to save a victim.Ends

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