Police woes: Is it political sabotage?

Jan 24, 2018

The responsible officers should resign for failing to effectively fulfil the President’s command of cleaning the Police of infiltrators.

SECURITY | POLICE

By Allawi Ssemanda

As Machiavelli taught us, those who live on the mountains have the best view of the valleys and those who live in valleys have the best view of the mountains. My article is written with views from those who live in valleys where I live, I see and will confidently say that, the mountain from where the Police and its boss Kale Kayihura sit, the mountain looks very suicidal, with many criminals and political saboteurs ready to fail Police for their selfish interests and the powers that be know this.

No wonder, when unknown people attacked and killed the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, in broad day light, President Museveni observed, "All these murders, I have followed myself. There are always clues leading to the criminals, but the criminals have infiltrated the Police". He then ordered the Police boss Gen. Kayihura to "clean the Police of these infiltrators". Unfortunately, Kayihura did not follow the President's directives to clean up the force of the said infiltrators and this is why he should step aside.

Kayihura did not clean the Police force as directed and if he ever tried, he probably may have used wrong elements who instead may have removed clean men that were closer to him and surrounded him with bad guys to ensure he does not get to know the wrong route some wrong elements in the force were taking our Police.

The above may explain why even after appearing before Parliament to defend the Police budget last week, overtly, Kayihura refuted claims by Butambala MP, Muwanga Kivumbi, that the Police was working with wrong elements of bodaboda 2010 to undermine security.

Had our army not intervened in investigations and arrested Kitatta and his Boda boda 2010 allies, who are key suspects in the gruesome murder of Francis Ekalungar, probably, investigations for this case would have collapsed as many other high profile cases seem to be failing. The fact that the army intervened and managed to establish serious clues about the case in a short time, it is an indictment to the Police despite its huge budget, has become infective or is not interested in investigating serious cases and protecting Ugandans. The responsible officers should, therefore, resign for failing to effectively fulfil the President's command of cleaning the Police of infiltrators. The President has been renewing the contracts of the Police bosses on trust that they would professionalise the Police more and ensure security of the country, but unfortunately, things seem to be different.

It seems the Police have relaxed and left lives of Ugandans to criminals. Put differently, the Police relaxed like a frog enjoying steam bath in water under direct sun. If you put a frog in boiling water directly, it will jump out of it and run to save its life. But if you put it in cold water, it will sit and relax. If you slowly increase the heat, it will continue relaxing thinking its sun warming the water, as the water gets more warmer, the flog will continue enjoying steam bath and get sleepy and dreamy. By the time it realises temperatures have gone too high, it will have become weaker and dizzy that it cannot jump out and this is how it will perish in the sleep and dream.

The Police is like this sleeping frog and the President's trust in them is the boiling pot. The tragedy is, if the Police fail because of the sleeping frog, we Ugandans will continue to be killed by criminals who will hide as the Police enjoy sleep. Ugandans will in turn blame the President whom they voted as the Commander-in-Chief and expect him to protect them from all forms of danger.

Kayihura is not the target but a subject of high politics. It is also possible that those sabotaging Kayihura are after failing Museveni's Government by weakening and failing security. This is the reason the President must act swiftly before those who infiltrated the Police can finish us.

As Sir Terence David John Pratchett - a renowned thinker once taught us, the President must learn to do onto others before they do him. Those who infiltrated the Police are so sophisticated that they infiltrated it effectively; they seem to have surrounded the Police despite being led by one of President Museveni's trusted person, which is also dangerous to the Government. As Machiavelli taught us, if you must kill a friend, you must use a borrowed knife. And those who kill a prince politically, they kill him using a borrowed knife. You can never see them coming. This is the reason President Museveni must deal with such threats decisively because their mode of work is not easy to tell.

As former Russian leader Joseph Stalin advised, a prince who desires love and conducts his affairs on friendship is doomed to fail. A good prince must hate love; he must hate smiling people because all assassins of princes are always the people with biggest smiles.

As Newton's third law states, "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" if your actions are good, the reaction will be bad and if your actions are bad, the reaction will be good. I urge President Museveni to act because, as a politician, he should not mind, the reaction will be good. Actually, I predict Kampala streets will be filled with jubilant people celebrating President's stand. In the same way, I hope this will result in seeing fruits from the Police; they should work to give results, instead of enjoying President's trust and relax as Ugandans face horror from gangs like Kitata's "fallen" Bodaboda 2010.

The writer is PhD student of international relations and diplomatic studies

 

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