Retired senior police officer says former IGP Kayihura made rash decisions

A retired senior officer has said one thing that let down the former Inspector General of Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura was always being quick to make decisions that later turned out suicidal.

Kayihura, the longest-serving IGP saw his tenure brought to an end by President Museveni in 2018 when he was dropped and replaced by his then deputy, John Martins Okoth Ochola after serving the force for 13 years.

Speaking to the Nile Post in an interview about his time as a police officer, Senior Commissioner of Police Dennis Odongpiny said  Kahihura always reacted without carefully studying what the problem was.

In my opinion that was his method of work.

“In my opinion, with Gen. Kayihura, whenever there was a complaint, he wouldn’t take time to investigate carefully before making a decision. He would make very quick decisions which in the end turned out to be wrong,”Odongpiny said on Tuesday afternoon.

He cited a case in 2009 in which   Robert Ssemata the then Officer in Charge of Nateete Police Station was arrested, stripped of his rank in public on the orders of President Museveni and later taken to the police court on charges of neglect of duty following an illegal eviction that saw residents beaten by police officers.

There were other officers including the area DPC who were indicted over the same case.

Odongpiny said the then IGP handled the matter hurriedly without investigating to find out the truth but ended up having him embarrassed.

“A bailiff went with a court order and gave it to the DPC who then went and witnessed execution of the order. I think a complaint went to the President who stripped the rank in public.Gen. Kayihura also went , arrested and suspended the OC CID that he failed to supervise the DPC. The DPC was not around at that time but OC suffered innocently,”Odongpiny said.

“In the end, the truth came out and he was cleared.”

Asked to further comment on the current police leadership, the retired senior police officer hailed Ochola as one who carefully follows procedures to the latter.

“Inspector General Ochola is a true civil servant who believes in doing things in an orderly way.”

When asked about claims by some senior officers that during Kayihura’s time they were sidelined for young blood, the retired Police disciplinary court chairman dismissed the claim as not being true.

“It is not true that he sidelined everyone who in his view made a mistake. Even some young officers were on katebe(sidelined) as well as some senior officers who made mistakes.”

“Every administrator has his strong areas and weak areas. To me Gen.Kayihura was very good at mobilizing resources for the police force. In fact during his tenure, the budget was increased and it was good.”

Full interview about Senior Commissioner of Police Dennis Odongpiny's 33 years in the Police force to run soon.