Police suspends 27 officers over misconduct

LUWERo, UGANDA: At least 27 police officers in Luwero district are on suspension for alleged abuse of office and gross misconduct. The implicated officers are accused of extorting money from suspects, mismanaging cases, executing illegal arrests, theft of exhibits, and alcoholism among other cases of indiscipline.

The latest case involves the suspension of the Officer In Charge of a police post, who was reported by leaders of Kalagala sub-county for alcoholism and incompetence. The officer has been recalled to Luwero Central Police Station for administrative action.

Patrick Lule, the Acting Savannah Regional Police Spokesperson says that some of the officers are facing administrative sanctions whereas others have appeared before courts to defend themselves in criminal cases.

An officer at Savannah Regional Police Professional Standards Unit, who preferred anonymity, said that the cases against police officers are likely to reach 70 because there are new entries missing on the list.

“We have received cases of police officers accused of stealing exhibits, case mismanagement, and extortion among others. Our role is to investigate and make recommendations to District Police Commanders to take action,” the officer said.

Richard Bwabye, the Luwero Resident District Commissioner says that some of the bad actions of the implicated officers had tainted the government’s image in the community.

Bwabye says the District Security Committee has passed a resolution banning in charges of police stations from conducting non-intelligence-led operations after getting information that some operations were being used to extort money from residents and not to fight crime.

David Kalungi, the LC5 councillor for Kamira sub-county says that last year he was robbed of nine million shillings by armed thugs but he was later able to identify the suspect as a police officer.

Kalungi says that detectives asked him so much money to investigate the attack but he lost interest after learning that the key suspect was a policeman. “Right now what I know is policemen are part of thugs that terrorize us and something must be done to clean the Force,’’ Kalungi said. In 2022, the police leadership expelled 153 officers across the country for their continuous involvement in corruption as well as indiscipline.