Policemen Housed In Kennels

Mar 29, 2004

SECTIONS of Police officers in various units have taken over kennels and turned them into fully-fledged homes, highlighting an acute accommodation problem in the Force.

SECTIONS of Police officers in various units have taken over kennels and turned them into fully-fledged homes, highlighting an acute accommodation problem in the Force, reports Steven Candia.

Given the accommodation crisis, the bad news of a limping Police Dog Section, in dire need of revamping could as well be good news for the officers.

In other units, the kennels which were built as temporary dog holding facilities and are too small for human habitation have been turned into complete offices and clinics. But when contacted, the officer in charge of the section, Kenneth Ogalo, yesterday said that though many stations in the country had kennels, he was not sure to what use they had been put after they fell vacant due to scarcity of dogs.

“I am told that many of them have been put to some use but I don’t know precisely what use they have been put to,” he said.

But The New Vision has established that part of what used to be a kennel at the Jinja Road Police Station barracks has been transformed into a clinic where officers and their families seek medical care, while the other part has been transformed into a house.

The same is true for Old Kampala Police Station barracks where a kennel has been turned into a house, and this is true of other up country stations.

When The New Vision visited the Old Kampala station on Saturday curtains hang on the door of a kennel and family members went about their business.

Officers said it was a well-known fact at the barracks that some of their colleagues were living in kennels but were pressed to do so due to an accommodation crisis.
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