The Uganda People’s Defence Force (UDPF) has said that disbanding the Local Defence Unit would not be possible, at the same time refuting reports that the Unit had been dispersed by President Museveni.
Recently, there were social media reports that President Museveni had disbanded the LDUs for apparently brutalizing locals.
However, the UPDF spokesperson Brig-Gen. Richard Karemire has said “there is no reason for that’ since the unit has helped reduce crime tremendously.
“Regarding calls to disband LDUs by some groups, there is no reason for that. They have over a long time while working with other forces contributed tremendously to peace by fighting crime,” he said.
Karemire admitted that there are some elements in the unit who have made mistakes but that will be worked on.
“The few who commit operational mistakes are always corrected and/or punished.”
Earlier the army had promised to review the deployments of the LDU personnel after a rise in the cases of indiscipline.
“There is no need to lose heart over these incidents. A comprehensive review of these deployments to enforce anti-COVID 19 measures is soon to take place and we expect better results,” Karemire said.
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Without revealing further what will be entailed in the review, the army spokesperson said this is part of their efforts to ensure they correct mistakes that could have been made by the LDU personnel.
He also revealed that as part of these efforts, they will soon start issuing name tags for every member of the Local Defence Unit for easy identification in case of any case of indiscipline.
In a statement this week, President Museveni said he would address the issue of indiscipline in the LDU.
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