Police have denied as ‘rumours’ reports that there is a rift between them and other sister security agencies including the UPDF and ISO.
For the past few weeks, the relationship between police and the army has not been warm following an incident at the home of one Muhoza Mbabazi who is reported to be a girlfriend to the slain police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kawesi at Lungujja in Rubaga division.
The frost relationship climaxed last week when Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence ( the intelligence and investigation arm of the army) arrested a number of senior police officers who were later charged for kidnaping a former bodyguard to Rwandan president Paul Kagame in 2013.
Addressing journalists at the police headquarters in Naguru on Monday, police spokesperson AIGP Asan Kasingye said that each of the various security agencies is doing their mandate and not fighting each other.
“There is no rift between the various security agencies. It remains a creation of the social media to come up with weird stories. There is no thin line between us and other security agencies,”Kasingye told a weekly news conference.
A number of police officers were last week arrested the former commander police Special Operations Unit, Senior Superintendent of Police Nixon Agasiirwe, Senior Commissioner of Police Joel Aguma(Commandant of Professional Standard Unit), Sgt Abel Tumukunde ( Flying Squad) Assistant Superintendent of Police Magada (Crime Intelligence) and Faisal Katende(Flying Squad) before being arraigned before the General Court Martial and charged for kidnapping Lt.Joel Mutabazi in 2013 contrary to Section 242 of the Penal Code Act.
However, according to the police mouthpiece, the incident was not the first for people from the various security agencies to be arrested by the sister agencies.
He said that what happened last week only shows that the various security agencies are doing their mandate in the country as regards security.
“This is not the first incident to happen. On many occasions the police has arrested many officers from UPDF and other security organs.”
When the police officers were arrested on Saturday, efforts to get a confirmation about the arrests proved futile after the police spokesperson denied knowledge of any arrest by the army even after over four days had passed.
Many raised concerns on whether the army communicated before the arrest of senior police officers to their sister security agency or the police feigned ignorance about the same but when asked to explain this situation, Kasingye maintained he was not aware anyone had been arrested.
“Those were still rumours and if I responded to the same, I would be a rumour monger,”Kasingye said.
“By that time I was not aware of any arrests.”
