Museveni highlights measures to fight crime in the country

President Museveni has highlighted measures he said will help in fighting the rising spate of crime in the country.

A number of people have in the past few months been killed whereas others have been kidnapped, prompting the members of the public to raise concern over the increased insecurity in the country.

On Wednesday in a widely anticipated address to the nation about security, Museveni first gave the historical perspective of religion bolding stating that Uganda was experiencing peace for the first time in 500 years.

Yet his address lacked some of the specifics related to some of the recent murders and crimes and left the public yearning for more.

About the new measures, President Museveni said he had issued an order to have all guns in the country fingerprinted so that in case of any gun related crime , security agencies can easily find out the type and registration number of gun used.

“I have been using guns almost continuously but didn’t know guns have individual fingerprints. I thought guns of same caliber would have same fingerprints. During my interaction with police, I was educated that catridges left at the scene of crime can tell us which gun fired bullet,”Museveni said.

Electronic number plates

According to Museveni, government will require all motorists to install tracking devices on their vehicles and motorcycles.

Museveni said that soon government will require every motor vehicle and motorcycle to have an electronic number plate installed at the owners to track them and used in case of any crime committed.

“We want electronic number plates with electronic signals in them. It will enable us know which vehicles were in which area if a crime is committed in any area. It will be tuned that if one tries to tamper with the number plates, our central monitoring system will be alerted and we go for the offender,”Museveni added.

Social media

He said security agencies can make use of social media to arrest criminals who use it to threaten violence,spread lies and cause panic.

"We are going to acquire capacity ,on top of what UCC has, to quickly locate the criminals.

" We can block but we don't want to do that because our grand children are using it well. We just need to go for the jigger directly without affecting the rest of the people."

Hoods

The president reiterated his earlier order banning drivers and motorcycle riders putting on hoods.

He said police has been given orders to arrest anyone seen putting on hoods as they pause a security threat.

“Motorcycle riders will now be required to put on helmets with illuminated numbers seen at back and front and put in central monitoring system.”

CCTV Cameras

Following the brutal murder of Kaweesi, Museveni said there is need to install security cameras on all major highways and towns to help fight criminality.

Speaking during his address to the nation, he boasted of having been involved in security and combat for the past 50 years adding that all the measures he is talking about can help fight crime.

“The master blow is installation of cameras in town roads, streets and along highways. The enemy can evade any other forms of detection but not optical measures including cameras, telescope and the eye,” he noted.

“One thing you can’t escape is the human eye, camera and telescope. It should be the anchor of anti-crime strategy. Our security forces should use ears to listen to any clues but should know eye is unbeatable.”

He also noted that a modern forensic laboratory would also help in fighting crime by testing the pieces of evidence picked from crime scenes.

According to Museveni, the biggest problem with this method is that at most times the crime scenes are tampered with by the public, a thing he said should stop.

Speed and urgency

He noted that on a number of occasions, suspects could have been arrested if there was timely response especially from police.

“We shall now provide the flying squad with unmanned aerial vehicles including drones and the flying squad will this time not be a crawling squad through heavy traffic,”Museveni noted.

He said that with the resumption of the police 999 system where people can call every time of the day, the unmanned aerial vehicles will come in handy in case of any report to help respond to any incidents of crime.

“If there is any call to 999, the drone flies up and if anybody tries to rush away on motorcycles, the drone flies above them.”

He also noted that there is need for acquisition of scanners by Uganda Revenue Authority to be placed at all border points to help trace any hidden illegal items smuggled into the country including guns.

He however warned that all criminals including those hiding in the DR Congo forests that they will pay for their sins.