KAMPALA, UGANDA: Government of Uganda has been sued over the poor housing conditions of police officers yet they do a lot in keeping law and order in the communities.
Through his lawyers of Mwina, Wananda & Co. Advocates, a lawyer identified as Mr. Kalali Stephen in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday says government has left most police officers countrywide to live in dilapidated housing structures with no action plan taken to improve their living conditions.
The respondent on behalf of government is the Attorney General, Kiryowa Kiwanuka.
The lawyer further indicates that having a decent home is part of being a citizen and recognizes the right to descent shelter as well as personal identity since it provides psychological and physical sanctuary.
The lawyer also argues that the poor accommodation structures availed to some police officers infringes on their rights to dignity of human persons, privacy and family.
Mr. Kalali now wants court to declare that all serving police officers are entitled to decent shelter and that the continued poor habitation of police officers in ramshackle building structures infringes on their right to stay in a clean and healthy environment and development, and therefore, action should be taken immediately to give the officers a decent living environment.
“That the act of packing or housing police officers in tents or sharing accommodation as housing as seen at different police barracks infringes on their right to privacy and the performance of conjugal rights is made difficult,” a multi-page suit seen by this website reads partly.
Mr Kalali states that there is a need for a healthy and sustainable environment since the police officers have been sabotaged and cannot exercise the right to express themselves, adding that the right to health brings together all humanity and it encompasses the environmental dimensions of the right to life, culture, nondiscrimination among others which the government has allegedly failed for over 30 years now.
Lawyer wants Govt to take action
According to the lawyer, Uganda police force receives annual sums for its budget and has a welfare department that ought to cater for housing of all police officers in the force every year.
“There is a need to protect the right to adequate housing just like other rights are protected as it provides a sense of place, comfort as well as security which is sensible and consistent with public values,”Mr Kalali states.
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