It is wrong to demonise the Police

By Mwineria Godwin Taria

Social media has been awash with fierce punches directed at the men in uniform, the police and particularly the IGP Gen Kale Kayihura.
To say it’s unfair before I explain why my opinion takes that direction might sound comical but so is the world where everybody is entitled to an opinion.
The police like any other institution, a public institution at that, have quite a number of challenges. It’s those same challenges however that give it room to do better, to learn from mistakes, to correct the wrongs, to uproot the rotten parts and to ultimately serve better.

The policing institution is the most visible when it comes to direct public service, where the service directly to the people is on a near per second interval. There is no single second a police unit is inactive and the reason it’s active is only because the men in police uniforms are mandated to serve the public.

It’s that direct service to the people that often lets the mistakes of individual officers get the public scrutiny which as a result leads to a storm of insults to the whole policing institution.
However, as it’s often argued that wherever there is a right then someone claiming that right is also duty bound. As a public, we are bound to cooperate with the police, to respect the police, to be law a binding.

Many a times I have seen civilians behave with utmost impunity towards the police officers, police officers have been killed by some of these irate civilians and I have not seen a single propaganda campaign championed by the police to portray the public as unruly.
Yes, mistakes have been made by the police and truth be told more mistakes shall be made for the police is made up of human beings and to err is only human. But remember those who committed those mistakes are being tried by a police court. So why are these attacks on the whole institution?
What has been specifically uncalled for in my view has been the direct attacks, name calling, sheer abuses on the person of the IGP. Gen Kale like the rest of us has children, relatives, friends and other people around him. It’s rather unfair to humiliate his character, to portray him as someone not conscious to the cries of the people. Oooooh how I wish we could save some face and be a little fair to our own conscience.  The General has dedicated all his life to public service, to make Uganda better even at the expense of his own comfort. His tenure at the helm of the police has registered tremendous success. The police today are more vigilant, more visible and readier to serve the public than they were before. Truth be told, we owe Kayihura all the support he needs to even do better.

But of course everyone is entitled to an opinion once again.
Let’s not forget that even in our homes we have black sheep, the stubborn children, the cheating spouses, the lazy workers and so does the police, have some officers who make mistakes. Let us unlearn generalizing issues for the challenges in policing are too huge world over.