Museveni asks Ochola to sack unpatriotic officers as he opens CCTV control centre

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President Museveni has asked the Inspector General of Police, Martin Okoth Ochola to sack officers who are neither patriotic nor dedicated to their work.

Museveni made the remarks on Thursday as he opened the newly constructed national CCTV command and control centre at the Police headquarters in Naguru.

“We now have the technology but it can’t solve anything if you don’t have dedication and patriotism. If you have patriotism and dedication in you, you can’t neglect your duty,” he said.

“If you don’t feel that you are patriotic and dedicated, got to the Inspector General of Police and you are relieved of your duties. The police must be cleaned up of all those people who don’t feel they are working for Ugandans.”

Following the kidnap and subsequent murder of Maria Nagirinya, a social worker in Busega in September, Museveni ordered for the sacking of all the police officers who were manning the CCTV cameras at the Nateete command centre over negligence.

He said he could not tolerate the officers whom he accused of being asleep at the time the kidnap happened and only woke up to retrieve pictures of events that had already happened.

Speaking during the opening of the national command centre at Naguru, Museveni insisted that any police officers who don’t have their country at heart should leave the force.

“While in the bush, the NRA looked at all Ugandans as our family. For you the officers, you must know that any attack on Ugandans is an attack on your family. If you don’t have this feeling, leave the force,” he said.

Pleased

The jolly Museveni said he was happy with the work done with the help of the CCTV cameras in fighting criminality.

He noted that following the killing of Muslim sheikhs, prosecutor Joan Kagezi, AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi, Col. Ibrahim Abiriga and Muhammad Kirumira, he realized police was using old methods to do investigations and this birthed the idea of installing CCTV cameras.

“You(Police) were depending on human information and I said we must go modern. I said we could not go with old methods and that we should implement this project,” Museveni said.

“With the little we so far have, we have achieved a lot.  I don’t know why some people had used crime to discredit the NRM yet security is my profession.  This is just the beginning and we are going to tighten the noose.”

The Inspector-General of Police, Martin Okoth Ochola said they would integrate the CCTV camera system onto systems for National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), Immigration, Uganda Revenue Authority, National Information Technology Authority (NITA) and Uganda Revenue Authority among other government agencies.

“It is imperative that we do everything in our power to ensure security of Ugandans and police officers must live up to the expectations,”Ochola warned.

The State Minister for Internal Affairs, Obiga Kania said the CCTV cameras are a good step towards ensuring digitalization of the country.

A total of 5,552 CCTV cameras are set to be installed in various places around the country with the Kampala Metropolitan districts of Wakiso, Kampala and Mukono taking a lion’s share with 3233 cameras on 1248 sites.

The newly installed CCTV cameras are of two types including the fixed and Pan Tilt Zoom(PTZ) cameras that rotate and views 360 degrees.

The cameras also have a feature of automatic number plate recognition for reading number plates including those for motorcycles.

The CCTV cameras also have a facial recognition feature, night vision, Global Positioning System (GPS) and automatic cleaning system.

The function was also attended by the Security Minister, Gen.Elly Tumwine, the  Chief of Defence Forces, Gen.David Muhoozi, Commissioner General of Prisons, Dr.Andrew Bashaija, and the External Security Organisation chief, Amb Joseph Ocwet among others.

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