Uganda’s Great Wall of Security

KAMPALA, UGANDA--"For God and my Country," signed Maj. Gen Kale Kayihura, inspector general of police, in the 2011 document, Uganda Police Force Sector Strategic Plan. Journalists attending events at Makerere University on Jan. 19 had an opportunity to learn how Kayihura's men and women serve God and Uganda. 

That day the university hosted Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa for a speech that coincided with the graduation of about 11,000 students. 

Maybe for the locals the presence of different police units armed with Russian manufactured sub-machine guns, tear gas and button sticks was less than a spectacle. To the foreign journalist it was not an easy sight. The police clad in different types of uniforms occupied the entrance into the university campus and all the roads inside the campus. A quick head count of those on guard around the main entrance ended at 40 men. 

When the flash from my camera gave me away to the police, one moved in to save God and country, confiscating  my camera and dragging me to the head of police on duty that day. Coming from Zimbabwe where the police are vicious to journalists, I knew what to do. Rule number one is to stay calm, smile from ear to ear, and try to win back friendship as soon as possible. I was handed to the commander of the crowd control squad. She asked me to switch on the camera and show her the photo I had taken. 

I obliged. She studied the shot, asked my nationality and why I was in Uganda. The interrogation lasted 10 minutes. Her judgment: "Delete the picture and leave the camera here and collect it when you leave campus."

I decided to take a gamble and seized the time to ask a few friendly questions. "Officer, your uniforms are more beautiful than the ones the police in my country wear," I said. "I like the one that you are wearing most," I continued. For the next fifteen minutes I got a lecture on the different force units in Uganda. There are seven different police units here: anti-riot and crowd control, anti-terrorist, traffic police, a criminal investigation unit, plain clothes detectives, regular police and the military police.

The unit she is in charge of wears green and white camouflage. Its main function is to quell riots and unrest in the different parts of Uganda. On that same day, her unit blocked an opposition pressure group, Action for Change (A4C), from holding a rally in a Kampala city suburb.

The other unit on campus that day was the counter-terrorism unit. The members of this unit wear black uniforms with long sleeves. Six counter-terrorism officers together with the Criminal Investigation (CID) units that wear civilian clothes guarded the entrance to the hall where Mbeki delivered his speech.  

Over and above all these units are the military police and the presidential guard. These are often the escort when the president of Uganda is passing through town. To cap it all there was also another police unit called the fire brigade. These too wear khakis.

Uganda radio network quoted the Deputy Inspector General of Police Julius Odwe, saying the police will spend 46.5 billion shillings on capital development, 40 billion shillings in keeping law and order and 6.25 billion to improve police presence in 2012.

The ecosystem of the police units identified in the story excludes the army and private security system.

As I have learned before, students who listen to their teachers attentively escape their wrath. I got released with my camera intact and with no charge pressed on me.

-Reporter Jonathan Gandari can be reached at jgandari@gmail.com.