The Uganda Police Force Political Commissar AIGP Asan Kasingye has warned commanders to stop selling plots of land in barracks to their juniors.
Kasingye said no one owns land within the police barracks and it’s illegal for senior officers to claim ownership.
“How can someone come out and sell Police’s land? We shall find ourselves in courts of law when someone is claiming land within the Police barracks because he bought that plot, from an officer, yet that land is owned by the Police. This is an illegal practice and must stop immediately.”
He again warned that whoever bought such land that when the time for the transfer comes, he or she must go.
“You can not tell us that you bought that land, under what law? Who sold you that land? They will have to tell us how they came to buy police land without telling us.”
Kasingye’s warnings follow complaints filed by some junior officers who are being forced by their top commanders to buy plots within the barracks if they reach a time of having a family.
They said that when their salary is deposited on their accounts, their commanders start persuading them to move out of the uni ports where they sleep in groups and start planning to live alone. However, as they persuade them, they also ask them to buy plots within the barracks where they can build a simple house instead of moving out of the of the police premises.
According to the complainers each plot ranges from Shs2m-Shs3m and after paying that money, one is allowed to construct a simple house to live. However the victims allege that when they are transferred to other barracks they leave their houses and their commanders sell them again. Officers complain that commanders who sell their houses don’t share with them any of the money.
The police force is having a challenge of accommodation whereby many Police barracks lack standard housing units to cater for the officers. However, Kasingye promised thst when the houses being built at Naguru police headquarters are finished, the challenge will be no more.
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