The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura has responded to concerns over the current state of affairs in the Police Force saying that critics are exaggerating the challenges that the Force is faced with.
Kayihura insists that the Police is not in a crisis and that it is being judged unfairly compared to other institutions which also have their weaknesses.
The IGP made the remarks on Friday while speaking at the ceremony to pass out 58 officers who completed a four months training course at the Senior Staff College in Bwebajja.
His comments come at the backdrop of increasing criticism from the public amid a diminishing level of trust within the Police which many say has been infiltrated by criminal elements. It follows arrests of senior police officers for alleged illegalities including kidnap, illegal repatriation of foreign nationals, corruption among others.
Most recently, former Buyende district DPC, ASP Muhammad Kirumira, a senior police officer came out to declare that he had resigned from the Police and exposed what he called the rot in the Force.
Kirumira said that some officers in flying squad and crime intelligence at Kibuli CID headquarters were working with thugs who were being protected as informants.
These claims followed a crackdown by the Chieftaincy of Military intelligence on the rogue group Boda Boda 2010 and its patron Abdallah Kitatta who were arrested on charges of murder, possession of military arms and failure to protect war materials. Kitatta and his group have previously openly claimed that they have the protection of the Police.
Despite the complaints and allegations raised by motorists whose motorcycles were confiscated by members of Boda Boda 2010 and some assaulted badly, Police never apprehended or questioned Kitatta and his groupmates.
However, Kayihura says that as much as there might be inefficiencies within the Police, it is wrong for the Force to be judged as angels.
“Those who want to bring us down, have tempted to magnify a problem as though there is a crisis in the police. There is no crisis in the Force,” Kayihura said on Friday.
“And it is not fair. We should be judged on the same standards that others are judged. But not that either you are an angel or you are a devil,” he added.
While he admits that the Police like every other individual and institution has its wrongs, the IGP added that “the critical thing in the Force is – we are striving to correct those mistakes”.
At the same event, the IGP stressed the need to equip officers with the right skills, innovativeness capabilities to counter the new trend of complex crimes such as cyber criminality and organised crime.
He also revealed plans to hire ex servicemen from the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and UK’s Scotland Yard to train over 4,000 Uganda Police Criminal Investigation and Crime Intelligence officers.