Requiem for Nsambya Police barracks
THE Inspector General of Police (IGP) is looking for an investor to take over Nsambya Police Barracks and Kibuli Police Training School. The IGP wants the investor to build housing units and hand them over to the Police after a stipulated period.
Rev Amos Kasibante
THE Inspector General of Police (IGP) is looking for an investor to take over Nsambya Police Barracks and Kibuli Police Training School. The IGP wants the investor to build housing units and hand them over to the Police after a stipulated period.
Reading about this, I was flooded with memories of the barracks in the mid-1960s through to the early 70s. As a child of a policeman living with my father in Nsambya Barracks, I can say it was a model of cleanliness and tidiness. The grass was always cut, and there was regular garbage collection.
In retrospect, I think the housing units could have been bigger, allowing two bedrooms instead of one. But they had a sitting room, kitchen, and bathroom and the Police were provided with beds, chairs and tables.
A small number of policemen lived in unipots, but there was no mama ingia pole in those days.
Policewomen were few in those days and were regarded with a mixture of curiosity and interest, especially when they wore trousers.
Nsambya was also the home of the Uganda Police Band. A popular singer of the 1960s, Kigongo, was a member of the Police Band.
There was also a state of the art sports facility at Nsambya. There was a dispensary and a maternity centre close to each other. Police children were allowed to have a go in the boxing ring. It was good physical and mental preparation and taught you to stand up for yourself. The boxing prepared me to face bullies when I went to boarding school.
The barracks also played a part in my spiritual formation; for it was there that sense of injustice towards an individual or in society and the determination to confront it began to take shape in my life.
It was nurtured not only by reading the Bible, but by rummaging through the police magazine Habari. There were also Drum and Ebony magazines that further shaped me into who I am.
At the barracks I also heard rumours about a coup against Obote’s government and heard the earthquake and hail of bullets that ushered in Amin. However, If you visited the barracks today, you would be in shock. All the facilities are run down and it looks like a pig sty.
The writer is a chaplain at Leicester University, UK
THE Inspector General of Police (IGP) is looking for an investor to take over Nsambya Police Barracks and Kibuli Police Training School. The IGP wants the investor to build housing units and hand them over to the Police after a stipulated period.
Reading about this, I was flooded with memories of the barracks in the mid-1960s through to the early 70s. As a child of a policeman living with my father in Nsambya Barracks, I can say it was a model of cleanliness and tidiness. The grass was always cut, and there was regular garbage collection.
In retrospect, I think the housing units could have been bigger, allowing two bedrooms instead of one. But they had a sitting room, kitchen, and bathroom and the Police were provided with beds, chairs and tables.
A small number of policemen lived in unipots, but there was no mama ingia pole in those days.
Policewomen were few in those days and were regarded with a mixture of curiosity and interest, especially when they wore trousers.
Nsambya was also the home of the Uganda Police Band. A popular singer of the 1960s, Kigongo, was a member of the Police Band.
There was also a state of the art sports facility at Nsambya. There was a dispensary and a maternity centre close to each other. Police children were allowed to have a go in the boxing ring. It was good physical and mental preparation and taught you to stand up for yourself. The boxing prepared me to face bullies when I went to boarding school.
The barracks also played a part in my spiritual formation; for it was there that sense of injustice towards an individual or in society and the determination to confront it began to take shape in my life.
It was nurtured not only by reading the Bible, but by rummaging through the police magazine Habari. There were also Drum and Ebony magazines that further shaped me into who I am.
At the barracks I also heard rumours about a coup against Obote’s government and heard the earthquake and hail of bullets that ushered in Amin. However, If you visited the barracks today, you would be in shock. All the facilities are run down and it looks like a pig sty.
The writer is a chaplain at Leicester University, UK