Aronda in maiden visit to Police Headquarters

By Steven Candia

Internal affairs minister Gen. Aronda Nyakairima has asked the Police to pay attention to service delivery and ensure value for money in as far as government funds are concerned.

Speaking at a meeting with directors of the Uganda Police Force, Nyakairima said emphasis should be placed on service delivery. “You need to keep an eye on service delivery to ensure that government funds are put to proper use,” he said on Friday at the Police headquarters. 

This, he said, can be achieved by reinforcing service delivery monitoring mechanism. It was the first time Nyakairima was meeting the directors and the first time he was visiting the new Police headquarters since being appointed minister. He hailed Police Chief Gen. Kale Kayihura for “transforming the Uganda Police Force from a nomadic Police unit to one with a fixed place of abode.”

He said gone were the days when Police was nomadic in nature where they could be tossed from one place to the other. 

“In my political education teachings, I put a line between the old Uganda and the new Uganda. The old Uganda is where Police was nomadic. They would be chased from one place to another but now there is a home,” Nyakairima said.

He urged the director of criminal investigations and intelligence (CIID), Grace Akullo, to work hand in hand with the different government institutions to detect crime instead of investigating it after money has been misappropriated. 

He highlighted the need for the Police to work with public hospitals to ensure that drugs are put to their intended purpose. He emphasised the importance of the East African Community and urged officers to embrace East African integration as it will help in fighting cross-border crime.