Dear Mr. President,
KAMPALA – Your Excellency, l heard you say in one of your nation’s address speech that, you are not sanctioning death sentences the hanging to be carried out for the reason that you are of an opinion that only God has the right to terminate human’s life. Mr. President, humans belong to specie called animals. When an animal goes around biting people, that dog’s life it is needful to be ended. ‘Rats play where there is no cat’. Records reveals that notorious criminals brutalize again once released from jail.
Your Excellency, also in one of nation’s address speech, I heard you say that, you do not like to people to be frightened, scared or faint-hearted when carrying out a task or tasks delegated to them by your office. As a reason of this, you refrain yourself from, reprimanding persons, whose performance is substandard. Your Excellency, incompetence is rewarded by payment of loss or demotion or dismissal or sometimes imprisonment in neglect of duty cases.
Mr. President, one time I went to the Local Council (LC) Chair to whistle-blow criminals. The LC’s replied to me that, persons whom I reported to him were the ones who vote him in the Chair of LC. I noticed that the LC often joined them at a particular drinking venue. Played with them snooker / Pools, they also bought him liquor and drunk it.
I then went to the police stations in the area, namely: Wakaliga and Natete. But the police men showed no interest to arrest those people. Money was asked from me by the police to be able to go arrest the person. I became taken aback that when the police came into contact with the wrongdoer; I saw the latter give cash to the Operation OC. To my learning, there was a built bond between the wrongdoers and the police. They knew each other.
Not news to me when I heard that those who murdered the late Maria Nagirinya and Ronald Kitayimbwa resided in Natete Zone. Crime happens under the local Police’s nose watch. There is one evening, a female came running, she found me seated on a bench drinking my beer at a kiosk, around me where these males that l have mentioned above as persons in criminal activities in the area. The female said, she had been told by a man in plain clothing, to tell us, in particular to tell the woman who owned the kiosk, selling to us drinks and to the other persons supplying them: khat drug plant, marijuana, and ethyl – alcohol, that we should disperse, move away from that place. That in five minutes a patrol police vehicle was to be coming. We all moved into the kiosk and the owner of the kiosk closed us inside with her. Once five minutes struck, a patrol police vehicle came, drove around, and thereafter left. We came out of the kiosk, put the seats out again and sat. I was left gobsmacked and taken aback as we continued consuming our drinks.
My lifestyle, l tend to live just like everyone around me, to know the people in my vicinity That concept allured me to sit, drink with people ranked in society to be at the bottom of the social – stratification hierarchy structure. This enabled me to hear their conversions, bragging of operations they had done. As well as, heard where they had hidden goods that they had stolen in the night. At times, l bumped in them, when they are committing the theft or robbery. These males had befriended prostitution females. These females would bring news to these males about the person or place or item to be mugged. I noted that, these males would in day-time work as: bodaboda riders or car-washers or as car-mechanics or as carpentry -workshop workers or as wielders or callers of passenger on taxi stages or other times be hired to paint walls or worked in venue showing movies and karaoke or worked as security guards doormen (bouncers).
I became defeated unable to have these people behind the bars, because the system wrestles the whistle-blower. I am left perplexed that Uganda’s Police focuses on arresting the wrongdoers after crime is committed than focusing on preventing the crime from happening.
Your Excellency, it is understable that, you cannot be in every zone of Uganda to check if the policemen are setting best working practices are netting criminals before crime committing. For that reason you delegated assigned tasks and roles down the line. Management ethic expound that, responsibility cannot be delegated or passed on. Just authority is delegable. There should be careful balance between ‘dangling the carrot’ and ‘wielding the big stick’ in your leadership style. I am willing to offer proposals on how to improve policing in each community.
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Mr. Caxton Kasozi-Batende is a legal practitioner and domiciled in the United Kingdom.
