Police fires entire Flying Squad operatives team

The police have fired all Flying Squad operatives with immediate effect, the Nile Post has learnt.

In an interno memo seen by this website dated November 5,  all police commanders have been wanred against housing the operatives at their police stations.

“To all those who have been working with Flying Squad as operatives.Their services have been terminated with immediate effect from today November 5, 208  till further notice,”read an “urgent” notice from the Flying Squad Unit commander Peter Kakonge.

It is said the directive to fire all operatives of the unit came from the Inspector General of Police, Martin Okoth Ochola following complaints over their unprofessional conduct while carrying out their duties.

This website has learnt that over 90 operatives have been affected by the new directive.

A number of the operatives, this website has also been told were ill trained whereas others were former robbers who were conscripted into the unit.

The Police Flying Squad was put in place to deal with high profile crimes including armed robberies, kidnaps, vehicle robberies and murders among others was accused of torture , robberies and a number of dirty deals that its operatives were accused of allegedly having involved in

Of recent, the army’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence(CMI) and the Internal Security Organisation(ISO) have been more involved in what would be the activities of Flying Squad including arresting of suspects.

Speaking to the Nile Post last week, the Chief of Defence Forces in the UPDF, Gen.David Muhoozi defended the army involvement in police operations, saying there had not taken over their role but were complementing them as mandated by law.

In June, Ochola disbanded the entire Flying Squad Unit before directing the Director Criminal Investigations Directorate AIGP Grace Akullo to recompose the unit.

Later, Detective Senior Superintendent of Police Peter Muwonge from CID headquarters was appointed as the new commander for the unit.

Formation

Formed in 2012, the Police Flying Squad Unit was put in place to replace the Rapid Response Unit as an emergency response to high crime rates in Kampala and its suburbs.

It had been formed to deal with high profile crimes including those armed robberies, kidnaps, vehicle robberies and murders among others.

The unit had its headquarters at the Kampala Central Police Station and Nalufenya, before the later was closed.

However, the police unit has since its inception leaned much on ill- trained, unprofessional and former criminals as operatives to carry out it work.

There have been a number of complaints against the unit by members of the public over robberies and a number of dirty deals that the operatives have been involved in.

In 2014, while still serving as the OC in charge of Nansana police station, the late  Muhammad Kirumira arrested a Flying Squad operative involved in robbery and paraded him to the media, a case that has since led to his (Kirumira demotion).