Nyakairima condemns violent Police arrests

By Cyprian Musoke
    
Internal Affairs minister Aronda Nyakairima has said that policemen who on Monday brutally arrested youth who were peacefully demonstrating at the American Embassy on the outskirts of Kampala will face disciplinary action if found to have used excessive force.

Interacting with MPs over public complaints about the nature of police arrests and the general state of the Justice; law and order sector at Parliament Tuesday, Nyakairima said that he has set up a committee to probe the officers’ conduct.

Police on Monday arrested 13 youths donning T-shirts bearing the portrait of ex-Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and engaged in running battles, which have been playing on television stations causing uproar in sections of the public.

“They will have to be thoroughly investigated before we take action. Most of these overzealous officers act on their own but there is no institutionalisation of torture. The boy who was dragged head down on the road we are going to take action. We shall not tolerate any case of torture anymore,” he said. The MPs raised the case of the boy being dragged head-down.

His resolve came just as the annual Uganda Human Rights report was being released on Tuesday, placing Police at number one in human rights abuses like torture, with the army and Prisons coming fourth.

Aronda was flanked by Ministry Permanent Secretary Stephen Kagoda, and senior officials from the Police , prisons, and other Justice law and order sector officials.    

He was responding to MPs’ ire at the images that have been running of the boy whose head was dragged on the tarmac before being hurled onto a waiting Pickup truck.

MP Joseph Ssewungu raised the concern, saying that in the Western countries, demonstrators who are peaceful are handled humanely.

Asked why many people, lately including an MP were incarcerated beyond the mandatory 48 hours before being arraigned in court, Aronda said he had issued strict orders that the 24-hour rule should be adhered to.

Cyrus Amodoi Imalingat, the Toroma County MP’s incarceration beyond the mandatory 48 hours last week became an issue in Parliament forcing MPs to task the minister secu5re his right to bond.

“No Police or prison officer should compromise on the provisions of the Constitution,” he stressed.

Kagoda admitted to findings by the MPs from their recent tours that the Prisons are congested, adding that they have hatched many policies to decongest them.

“Some Prison officers told us that over 700 men were held in a room meant to house 100 inmates so they could hardly eat or sleep,” the MPs who have just concluded a country wide tour of prisons said.

“We are now into community service with a whole department now which is encouraging judges not to send petty offenders on remand, community policing and asking families as the basic unit of society to bring up their children well,” he said.

The Mps also wondered why there was no more funding for the Justice Law and Order sector. They wondered why the Police Duty free shop only sell cement and iron sheets to the Police men, saying life could be more bearable for the force if other consumables like food and drinks are also factored in.

But Nyakairima said that they were bent on first improving the housing stanradrds of police before dealing in other things.

The Mps were also concerned about the incarceration of juveniles together with hardcore criminals,  making them come out worse, the state of hygiene and sanitation, encroachment on prison land, advising that it be fenced off.

Joseph Ssewungu and Wamai Wamanga sparred with the minis over their allegation that the Police is nowadays trained together with the army, which Nyakairima vehemently denied.