We discussed Nalufenya closure- Police

The Deputy Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango has said the Police Advisory Committee(PAC) that sat this week discussed closure of Nalufenya detention centre in Jinja district.

On Friday, the government newspaper reported that the new Inspector General of Police, Okoth Ochola had ordered for the closure of the detention centre which has come under attack in the recent years over torture claims.

However, Onyango said the facility had not yet been closed but noted it had been a subject of discussion by the police council.

“The matter of Nalufenya facility was discussed in our Police Advisory Committee but there was no decision taken or resolution made on it,”Onyango said on Friday afternoon.

He added, “The Inspector General of Police normally writes his orders and directives but this has not been done.”

The Police Advisory Committee comprises of only police directors and heads of directorates and after making resolutions, they are forwarded to the Police Council.

A number of suspects have in past come out in the public to accuse police of torture while in detention at Nalufenya detention centre in Jinja district.

Kaweesi murder suspects including Kamwenge mayor Godfrey Byamukama,Lt.Godfrey Musisi and 22 other suspects all displayed skeptic wounds all over their bodies saying these had been caused by police torture in a bid to extract information from them and also to force them admit participating in the murder.

Many human rights bod have also advised police to close the facility and other torture chambers for being used to violate rights of suspects detained at Nalufenya.

On Thursday, the Uganda Law Society said they would soon meet the new police leadership and top on their agenda would be closure of Nalufenya.

“We expect the new leadership to begin by closing the torture chambers including Nalufenya.We shall engage them to see this is done,", the outgoing Uganda Law Society president Francis Gimara said during the launch of their first quarterly report for the state of the rule of law in Uganda at Serena hotel.

Police spokesperson, Emilian Kayima recently defended the existence of Nalufenya as being legal because it is a gazetted place of detention for high profile suspects.