For AIGP Asan Kasingye, being a police officer was all he ever wanted

He is a Police officer who cast off his given Jewish name Asa because of his curiosity as young boy and felt that by adding a letter N to it would be cool.

If it wasn’t for that name change, then let’s imagine him for a second as AIGP Asa Kasingye!

“We were going to register for PLE…. those who wanted to change names but I asked myself what I can change about my name so I added N and it looked funky,” he laughed as he reminsced of the day.

Would it really be a debate now on whether maintaining his original name would have impacted on the person that he is today?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEU-n880jnw

The police officer who has served the Uganda Police since 1989 started out as an OC at Entebbe Police Post rose through the ranks to the titles of Chief Political Commissar and Director Interpol and International relations.

AIGP Asan Kasingye describes his connection to the Police Force as the job of his life to the depth of a revelation that it was either the Police or he would never have worked for Government.

“...they were three forms and you’d to put different jobs that you would want to be posted to. I got the first form and I put, Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police, I got the second form I put Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police, I got the third form I put Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police…..”, he recalled the Government public service process he exploited to the core to arrive at his dream of becoming a Police Officer.

Inspired by his roommate at Makerere University in 1986, who had earlier become a Police Officer, Kasingye had made up his mind at the time that he wanted to become a cop.

“…he would come back to see us at Livingstone hall….he put on his Uniform, he came in a Police Car, he left me some little money and I looked at him…he had changed and I said, wow…” Kasingye exclaimed.

The footsteps he has covered so far in the Force since then as Assistant Superintendent of Police, Superintendent of Police, Assistant Commissioner and Commissioner bellow with pride upon his name with an integral work ethic to which he founded from the grassroots in Community Policing to his free spirited character on his Twitter platform towards the citizens.

But it was never all wine and roses for the enchanted Kasingye whose Police Uniform was an embodiment of the King's Crown, to some, he had become a disappointment, “…even when I went in uniform at home in the village, people were like what is he doing? What’s wrong with him? I did Economics and Political Science…you mean he could not go in a bank..?”

Never is society static for it succumbs to the generational changes that Kasingye says given the positive attitude of young people joining the force today, their interests are ill-founded with opportunism rather than the nationalistic core of service that he alludes to his calling to the Force.

After training for four months at Kyankwanzi which was the School of Political Education at the time in 1989, Asan Kasingye was retained as one of the lecturers.

The face that the Uganda Police wears today in the eyes of a man whose destined history with it has been to have the right people in security agencies envisages it today as being affected by the kind of society given that the reverse may not be true.

“Police like any other institution is shaped by the existing societal conditions partaining in any country…the conditions in a country that exist will more or less dictate the outlook of the Police you’re going to have,” he explained strongly channeling his defence upon the often cursed institution by a section of Ugandans to the undeniable changed political systems,

“… we're talking about a Multi-Party Political dispensation. Policing in a one Party Political dispensation and Policing in a Multi-Party Political dispensation is quite different. Policing when you didn’t have the Public Order Management Act of the nature that we've….”.

Kasingye who also served as a Police Spokesperson after the passing of the slain AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi in 2017 envisions better institutional capabilities through additional Police training courses to counter the changing societal trends.

The expert Police trainer who also holds a Master of Arts degree in Public Administration and Management finds no shame in admitting that need is the basic for which some officers in the Force today, “ ….must be retooled with training with a sense of direction….this is a disciplined institution…we need to keep on informing our officers about delivering service that people expect.”

The humility with which Kasingye finds blessings from a career that spans over thirty years has come forth with tolerance, “ …every step you go to…you learn how to behave, you understand the expectations of your job and by the time you go to the next level, you’re kind of a different officer…we never demanded for promotions…”.

Defined by his honesty uprooted from his sentiments on the growing glaring bad behaviour of some officers who he said need to change, Kasingye accentuates that a rank is an expression of what one can deliver, however, before one is defined by a title, a name is the summary to which anyone becomes well-defined, “I normally tell people that my patent is my name. My name is my Patent….if someone tells you Asan Kasingye, what comes to your mind?”

It would be impossible now to remember that he was ASA but who would care now if the ASAN Kasingye with the N he choose is what the world will remember.