Survey ranks Ntinda police station best in Kampala

On several occasions, people have accused police of a number of issues ranging from the increasing rate of corruption, brutality, mishandling of criminal cases,failure to compile cases in time and delay in attending to their clients among others.

A 2019 report released by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) even ranked police among the top most corrupt government agencies in the country.

In a bid to improve on service delivery in all the public institutions,SEMA Uganda, a local civil organisation started an annual survey to analyze the performance of different government agencies which include,courts, municipalities,police stations,cities among others.

The chief executive director SEMA Uganda, Nathalie Josephine, revealed that the survey was only done in five major police stations in Kampala metropolitan area due to lack of funds to cover all the stations.

"We measured five stations, so there are many stations we did not cover because we did not have enough funds.That was our decision and the police allowed us to measure otherwise we wouldn't be able to get this information, "she explained.

She said this year the organisation expects to extend it's wing to over eight police stations in different parts of the country.

Ntinda police station was ranked the best in terms of public satisfaction followed by Jinja road police station, Wandegeya police station, Kira police station and Central police station (CPS) in that order.

Nathalie said the stations were evaluated based on the way they handle cases and responsiveness to the public affairs among others.

She said the results of the research were partially got from the machines which were placed at different police stations.

"We have different machines and these machines help you to determine how you have been assisted at a given police station. If you are happy with it's services, you press happy and if you are not satisfied with the service of the police or the way you were handled, you press unhappy,"she explained.

She said interviews were also carried out from the members of the public to ascertain the facts on how they were served by these police stations.

In an interview with Nile Post, the spokesperson Kampala Metropolitan area, Patrick Onyango congrulated the best police stations and urged them to continue serving the public in the best way possible.

He however defended the poorly performing stations noting that the workload varies from one station to another.

"The CID is supposed to investigate four file cases a year according to UN but here you find an officer is investigating over two thousand cases per year, so the workload is so high," he said.

Moses Wegulo, the officer in charge of Ntinda police station, expressed his gratitude towards the recognition the station received as the best within Kampala metropolitan area.

"There are many things we handle as police. The way we serve our clients is what differentiate us from other police stations within the area. We think that the citizens of this country are the very people who go to these various police stations," he said.

Though the station managed to scoop the best for service, Wegulo said there are some areas of weakness which need improvement.

He said the station managed to fight all forms of corruption among its staff by taking actions against those found culpable.

Wegulo advised all the police stations and officers to always take the public as the first priority.

"We can't avoid criticism from politicians or the public , serving the public is not easy, there are many challenges but for us as police in Ntinda, our task is to serve the public and we shall always make sure our people are served in the best way,"he said.