As the global fight against terrorism gains ground, Eastern Africa is still grappling with the legal regime that gives criminals way to thrive. There is need to harmonise laws among member countries to strengthen the fight.
Terrorism is one of the transnational crimes that the world is still struggling to eliminate, however in this fight some countries have weaker laws that cannot hand deterrent punishments.
Uganda is now considered one of the countries that have mastered the fight against terrorism. The country has had a number of success stories where suspected terrorists are netted paraded before court and convicted.
It’s upon this that Countries in the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation are here for a one-week training on terrorism.
During the opening of the one-week training that has drawn Counter Terrorism officers, Immigration and boarder control officers, Investigators and Interpol Staff from EAPCCO member states, the Interpol Director Uganda Fred Yiga noted that the free movement within the East African region has also given criminals space, therefore there is need for more training for immigration officers.
Yiga added that there is also need to have a strong-shared database in the region to store data, analyse and use it to track criminals.
‘‘We need to harmonise the legal regime so that the punishments terrorists get in Uganda is an equivalent of what they get in Kenya so and Tanzania so that we curtail this freedom of jumping from one country to another because of the weaknesses in the law.’’
‘’ Uganda has done very well in the fight against terrorism, there is a lot of joint effort in our country, security forces work together to make sure civilians are safe that’s why this country has been chosen as a venue for this important meeting.’’
According to Yiga, Terrorism is a crime that has committed funders and this makes the fight complex.
Among the notorious groups terrorising Eastern Africa are; the Alshabab based in the horn of Africa and ADF in the DR Congo forests.
By Salmah Namwanje
