President Yoweri Museveni has applauded former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Gen Kale Kayihura for creating the Crime Preventers program during his tenure as the Police chief. The President has also declared the over 11 million crime preventers scattered across the country as a reserve force for the national army, UPDF.
Museveni said this on Wednesday while meeting with regional and district crime preventers’ coordinators at the MTN Arena in Lugogo in Kampala.
The President likened the group which is a brain child of Gen Kayihura to the National Resistance Army (NRA) which he commanded during the guerilla war in the 1980s.
“I regard you as a reserve army of the UPDF. If anybody was ever foolish enough to provoke a war with Uganda, then I would mobilize you to sort out that stupid fellow. Because you are now 12 million,” Museveni told a gathering of crime preventers, prompting cheers and a standing ovation from the thousands of crime preventers’ coordinators that attended. Some could occasionally be heard chanting “Live longer”.
He recounted that when the NRA came from the bush, they launched a massive military training program (Mchaka Mchaka) in which many civilians participated.
“Whenever there was an insurgency, like the one we had in Rwenzori, we would call on these people to join the army as Local Defence Units (LDUs). When we needed armed power like in Somalia, we would go to LDUs and fill the army”.
Crime Preventers were established in 2013 and would later be trained at a mass scale by Kale Kayihura in the lead up to the 2016 general elections amid tough criticism from the public and political opposition who feared the group was created to intimidate those opposed to government. Questions also arose around the legal basis of the quasi military vigilante force as well as how the already financially strained Police would fund them.
In the years that followed, a number of crime preventers were implicated in criminal activities, prompting further criticism. When President Museveni sacked Kayihura weeks ago, many speculated that the vigilantes, his creation would be disbanded.
However, on Wednesday, Museveni downplayed these speculations and instead said crime preventers need to be consolidated especially at the grass root level if their potential is to be fully realized.
“A few weeks ago, I saw in the papers, somebody saying that the fate of crime preventers is to be decided by the new IGP. I rang him [new IGP] and said ‘this is not your problem’,” the President said.
He stated that “the strategy of crime preventers is not a strategy of Kale Kayihura but a strategy of the NRA”.
Nevertheless, Museveni gave credit to Kayihura for actively replicating a program he had implemented during his service as the Chief Political Commissar in the UPDF.
“I want to salute Kale Kayihura because as a loyal cadre, he actively implemented this program. He was doing it with the Army when he was CPC. But when he came to Police, he came with the same idea and actively implemented it,” Museveni said.
This is the first time Museveni is publicly speaking about the former Police chief.
The President advised the leadership of the National Crime Preventers Forum to meet with the Chief of Defence Forces to streamline their role in combatting crime.
He also asked crime preventers to adopt a people centric approach to fighting crime in the communities they operate, as opposed to instilling fear among the citizens.
“We don’t want a police state, but you can be inquisitive whenever something looks suspicious. Be part of the people. Don’t be show offs or instigate fear. Be respected. That’s how you will be trusted with information”.
The President suggested that in addition to their primary objective of fighting crime, the crime preventers should play an exemplary role in poverty eradication through wealth creating activities such as commercial farming. He said that the government will support them with the necessary equipment.
During the meeting, Museveni pledged to capitalize the Crime Preventers’ Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) with a sum of Shs 1.3 billion in the 2018/19 financial year.
The National Coordinator for Crime Preventers, Blaise Kamugisha said that since its inception, the group has been instrumental in reducing crime in the country as well as bridging the gap between the police and the public.
“It is evident that the relationship between the public and police is there and it is because of us [crime preventers]. We have played an important role in helping police fight crime. In fact, in 1 out of 10 cases reported to Police, information comes from crime preventers,” he said.
Like Museveni, the Minister of Security, Gen Elly Tumwine who was also in attendance compared the crime preventers with the NRM revolution which he said “was founded on voluntary struggle and mobilizing the mass”.
“The new generation is coming up to continue with the revolution. Seeing the vigour they have, I am sure that crime is in trouble,” Gen Tumwine said.
The delegates assembly was also attended by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Brig Sabiiti Muzeeyi, the Police Chief Political Commissar, AIGP Asan Kasingye as well as MPs; Betty Engola (Apac), Jovah Kamateka (Mitoma), Mwine Mpaka (Western Youth MP) and Charles Ngabirano (Rwampara).
