AIGP Tom Magambo, the Head of the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) has advised that a stronger law and order system must be put in place if Uganda is to achieve and maintain the progress of Socio-Economic transformation.
Speaking during the launch of the twenty-fifth Quarterly Rule of Law Report, 2023 by Uganda Law Society at Mestil Hotel-Kampala on Thursday, Maj. Magambo revealed that although Uganda has had stability for over 37 years, disrespect for rule of law is still high within the public and even in security forces.
“We must reform as Police as far as rule of law is concerned, I feel embarrassed when I hear some officers were caught in corruption scandals. But internally we are going to work together and see which areas we must work on for the betterment of our country because we believe after 37 years of this stability if we must transform this country to another level, the socio-economic transformation will only survive if we have a strong law and order system in this country,” he said.
AIGP Magambo added that there is no country that will ever develop or have a law-abiding population if the enforcers of the law are not trusted or seen as incompetent.
“Police have a central role because no investor will come in the country that is not sure about law and order, no tourist will fly into the country when they are not sure about their safety. All this now brings a huge burden of responsibility on the Uganda Police and our sister security agencies to improve. That is why we are discussing every day to ensure that we become better, it is very unfortunate that you will go in to arrest and then there is a scuffle, we want to work together and build a society that believes in the state systems,” he said.
According to Maj. Magambo, the level of lawlessness/ disrespect of rule of law is not only in common people, even leaders don’t want to respect laws especially when they are dealing with security agencies, especially the Uganda Police Force.
“At times we invite some big figure in this country politely and silently ‘Please we have a few questions for you legally’ This person deliberately refuses to come, I don’t know whether you understand that level of impunity. So we need to transform also as a society so that when you are invited no matter what office you hold or how important you are, you know that the police have invited me and want to ask me some questions and I must go.”
“Please support us to train, train and train because we have to build together this society which we want, so I want to apologize where there have been mistakes arising from the incompetence of our officers. Nevertheless, among the reforms which the IGP has guided us is working on the mind of these detectives through courses and different seminars to convince them about our role in the socio-economic development and the need to respect our constitution as they are doing their work.”
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