President Museveni says criminals in the country were not being arrested because police had “bean weevils”, which he said have been since removed.
Speaking at the Women’s Day celebrations in Mityana District on Thursday, the President said Ugandans should not worry about increasing criminality in the country, arguing that his government has all resources to defeat them.
“We concentrated on defeating terrorists in the bush. No one should worry that Uganda is in any kind trouble. But we now have criminals and murderers in town, it’s becoming a problem we have to tackle,” Mr Museveni said.
“We had captured the criminals but police had been infested by weevils. Those who were murdering women in Entebbe are in prison. The ones I don’t know yet are the ones who murdered Magezi, the Muslim clerics and Kaweesi,” he added.
The President’s remarks come five days after he sacked long serving Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura and replaced him with Mr John Okoth-Ochola.
Inside sources had earlier told PML Daily that the President has been forced to fire Gen Kayihura following the police chief’s failure to deal with incessant crimes in the country, especially the rising spate of killings and kidnappings, which he is said to have been convinced were beginning to compromise national security. The President was reportedly incensed that criminals have begun to perpetrate crime at will, with police unable to thwart their plans.
Senior Commissioner of Police Joel Aguma, Senior Superintendent of Police Nixon Agasirwe and five others were in October 2017 arrested by CMI over illegal extradition of perceived Rwandan dissident refugees from Uganda back home where they faced persecution and prosecution.
Following the assassination of Andrew Felix Kaweesi, the former police spokesperson, President Museveni said criminals had infiltrated the Uganda Police Force and other security agencies, which has compromised investigations into high profile killings.
However, he has previously praised police for doing good work in tackling Opposition demonstrations. In 2015, he described Gen Kayihura as a “very good cadre”.
At the Women’s Day celebrations on Thursday, the President castigated men who still batter their wives.
“I have been with Janet [First Lady] for close to 50 years but I have never even pushed her. When we have our fights, I just leave her in peace and go somewhere else. Men stop beating women, we even stopped cattle keepers from hitting cows, what then makes you beat a woman? When you see a man beating a woman, know that he’s stupid and he’s a coward because if you want to fight, look for a fellow man.”
He also asked girls not to go into marriage to earn a living but that they should go for love, not for “legalized prostitution”.
“Women say they don’t report the men because they’re dependent on the man. Women, get your own property so that you can stop depending on men for everything. If your husband disturbs/beats you, park your things and go. Girls should not go into marriage because of legalized prostitution, they shouldn’t be swayed by wealth, it should be because of love,” he said.
The President also appealed to Parliament to allocate more funds towards wealth creation programmes so as to create more jobs.
“I appeal to MPs in the budgeting; after we deal with big issues like security, roads, and hospitals, we should put more money in the wealth funds because this is now the bank which can enable these women develop their own properties. On this Women’s Day, as we normally do, we visit the stalls. I have instructed my people to record all the exhibitors and give them support so that they can improve their products,” he said.
“We shall implement enhanced import substitution and enhanced export promotion. We used to import $7 billion worth of goods, but it’s now coming down to $6 billion. If you see what Uganda is exporting to Kenya, it is almost equal to what Kenya is exporting to Uganda,” the President added.
