Over 200 police officers fail preliminary exams for jobs in Somalia

A total of 238 police officers have failed the preliminary exams for jobs on foreign mission in Somalia, The Nile Post has learnt.

On Tuesay, 587 Uganda Police officers sat for the African Union Pre -Assessment for Assistance Mission Service exams at Nsambya Youth Sharing Hall in Kampala but according to the list released on Wednesday, 349 had gone through the first hurdle.

According to the Peace Support Operations directorate, only the successful officers will now undergo a driving test at the Luzira Prisons grounds on Thursday.

These preliminary exams are conducted by the police force examinations body as one of the preliminary stages and successful officers later sit for interviews conducted by the continental body before the sieved candidates are deployed for African Union missions around the continent.

The Director Peace Support Operations, Grace Turyagumanawe told journalists on Tuesday that the officers were first led through both oral and written interviews in a bid to determine their apprehension skills and ability to write statements while on a mission.

He noted that such missions are of great benefit to both the police force and individual officers as it helps them gain experience.

“The welfare of individual officers improves while they serve on the mission but above all, they return with experience that they share with the colleagues back at home,” Turyagumanawe said.

Last year, 200 police officers out of 430 who were aspiring to join the African Mission in Somalia-AMISOM failed the aptitude test and comprehensive interviews conducted at Namboole.

Only 50 police officers were required to join peacekeeping under AMISOM from Uganda.

However, only 19 police officers would later pass all the interviews indicating that only four percent of the police officers who applied the UN jobs passed the interviews.

They had been tested for skills in report writing, driving, shooting, ICT and international languages.