Opposition parties have expressed worry over the rapid recruitment of police personnel with just a few months towards the next general election.
Uganda Police Force on Monday, through its communication department, announced 5000 vacancies and called for whoever interested in joining Police to apply.
“We have 5,000 vacancies to be filled. Of these 4,500 vacancies are for Probation Constables while 500 are learning Assistant Inspectors of Police (AIP). Applicants must be between 18-25 years,” said Deputy Police spokesperson Polly Namaye On Monday at Police headquarters Naguru.
Namaye added that only people with senior four certificates with atleast five credits including in English and Mathematics.
“For the Constables, applicants must have at least five credits in their Uganda Certificate of Education while the AIPs applicants must have at least a diploma in any science field,” she added.
She noted that the training will take 12 months and the applicant must be ready to comply.
Also education levels have been reduced to Senior Four because of the high levels of unemployment.
“The application process has already kicked off and clear handwritten application letters, passport photos and other photocopies of other useful documents should be delivered by the individual applicant to the recruiting team at the respective recruitment as per the schedule,” he added.
However, in an interview with this website on Monday, the Opposition Chief Whip, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda expressed his worries due to many changes made in Police and at the same time recruitment.
“Why recruit them now when we are soon going into elections and campaigns? This is just a move by the leading government to threaten the opposition. The in-service officers are almost starving then you think if more 5000 this is a poor move,” he said.
The Forum for Democratic Change mouthpiece added that the recruitment is one of the ways the National Resistance Movement is planning to start preparing security officers who will beat up people in Elections especially the opposition.
“President Museveni is now in great fear that is why is getting prepared to harm the opposition with his security agencies, whenever we are approaching elections, they recruit Police officers whom they will command to beat people. In the last election, they did the same and after elections, they were chased out police without even getting their payments,” he added.
Kalungu Member of Parliament Joseph Gonzaga Ssewungu also said the way NRM government is doing things now is a clear statement of what will happen in the coming elections.
“It started with the appointment of army officers in the top leadership of Police and Ugandans thought it was normal. Now all this recruitment? This manpower is not intended for safety of Ugandans but for the safety of President Museveni,” Ssewungu said.
However, Namaye rubbished these claims and said Police has its own structures it follows while arranging the recruitment activities.
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