A year after Kaweesi murder and changes in the police force

By Mulisike Badru

It was in this month of March(17th) the year 2017 when shocking news of how the then police spokesperson AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi together with his body guards were murdered by unknown assailants. It is believed that over seventy seven bullets were showered on the car of the late AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi together with his body guard and driver. And the heartless killers rode away on motorcycles unnoticed and up to today there are still many question marks on this brutal murder.

At the time of his murder many Ugandans had started referring to him as the face of police. It was hard talking about the police force without mentioning his name. He was its spokes person and human resource director who with great calmness and professionalism knew how to encounter different situations.

This proved him beyond reasonable doubt that he loved his job and was serving his country whole heartedly.

Since then there have been many events unfolding around the police force which the president said that it(police) needed to be cleaned up since it had been infiltrated by criminals.

And recently, there came the major changes in the police force that saw the president appointing  a new Inspector General of Police Mr Okoth Ochola and his deputy Brigadier Sabiiti Muzeeyi.

I shall have to believe that when given some time the two shall try their level best to clean up the police force which is believed to be infiltrated by criminals.

In conclusion, to me i strongly believe that there might be a lot of loop holes in the Uganda police that might not be put right in the short run but probably in the long run the police force might need to revise the way they recruit people in the force.

I do not really think it would be a good idea to just call upon people who wish to join the police to apply without taking time to check their background and their intentions in joining the force.

Many individuals apply because they are jobless and need jobs yet this is one of the institutions that need one to serve their country whole heartedly and willingly.

I believe in future the police and other security agencies need to consider recruiting individuals as early as they are still in high school or university grooming them to love their country, and trying to show them that serving the police or army is more than being a job.

This might be of help that by the time these students graduate and ready to be taken into the force they have already been groomed and know exactly what to do and what it takes.