The increased armed robberies targeting different security installations especially police posts in the central region is an act of terror and mayhem that makes all Ugandans unsafe and this must be resisted in unanimity.
Several Police posts in the central districts of Mityana, Luweero, Kiboga, Nakaseke, and Wakiso have been attacked, ammunition stolen and a number of security personnel killed. A few months ago, there were other attempts by men disguising as lunatic persons to invade Military Bases especially the Airforce base in Mpigi but they were intercepted.
Well, the intention of the attackers may not be known by the civilian population but what is clear is that the stolen weaponries from the attacked security personnel will be used in lawless acts. I and you need to be vigilant because we don’t know the next target after security installations.
Even though President Museveni had directed the Police leadership in 2019 to close some police posts and shift to the Sub-county level for effective service delivery, the attacks have made it more urgent not to be rushed which will expose many communities to criminality and insecurity.
Police has since moved to close and shift some posts within the Kampala Metropolitan area in order to concentrate the officers at the sub-county level.
The exercise will see over 100 police posts and booths closed in Kampala Metropolitan which has 3.6m people. In fact, the exercise began a few weeks ago with posts like Nalukolongo, Kitebi, Munaku and Kabawo all in Rubaga Division have been closed already.
On average, each police post has 10 police officers who work in shifts with five working during the day and five at night. This means that 1,000 police officers will be withdrawn from these posts and stationed at the different Sub-counties.
According to a Uganda Police report, the ratio of Police to Population for the KMP is 1:800 above the worldwide standard ratio of 1:500. This means that 800,000 people in Kampala Metropolitan may not get emergency police response because these community- based police posts have been closed.
Definitely security agencies are doing their job and I believe they will handle it but also, we should closely work with security agencies to hunt and find these criminals. With the increased vigilance by the populace, the perpetrators will certainly face the law.
We all have duties to fulfill towards the state in ensuring peace and security in our communities including coordinating with security agencies to enforce community policing.
However, if we neglect our duties all of us including those who go on social media to celebrate these unfortunate attacks targeting security personnel, shall be victims of lawlessness.
