The United Nations entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women has donated forensics equipment worth shs750 million to the Uganda Police Force to help in investigating gender based violence cases.

The equipment handed over to the Police’s Chief Political Commissar, AIGP Asan Kasingye included three customized evidence vans,18 scenes of crime kits and 18 scenes of crime cameras at the UN Women offices in Naguru, Kampala.

“Violence against women has been on the upsurge in Uganda and this was exacerbated by the Covid pandemic and its effects like the lockdown. The prevalence  of physical violence experienced by women in Uganda stands at 51% far above the African average of 37.7% perpetuated both in private and public spaces. Therefore, a lot needs to be done to investigate and manage gender based violence cases by police,” said Adekemi Ndieli, the head of office at UN Women Uganda.

He noted that the equipment will help police in addressing the transportation constraints, evidence collection and handling in investigating gender-based violence cases in different parts of the country.

“We are confident that the equipment will greatly boost police efforts to ensure that evidence can be collected scientifically from the scenes of crime before such gets contaminated by human error or other elements.”

AIGP Asan Kasingye said the UN Women has supported police for the last 20 years, noting that the support has enabled the force build the required capacity to handle gender-based violence cases.

“This donation will enhance crime scene investigations through proper processing of the crime scene and timely collection and transportation of evidence and exhibits from different stations to the forensics laboratory for analysis and timely reporting of the findings which will enhance the justice system,” AIGP Kasingye noted.

He noted that the DNA consumables as part of forensics have enabled the fore process 56 cases and a total of 500 sample specimens in sexual based gender-based cases received by the Directorate of Forensics Services for analysis.

Kasingye noted that the new equipment will further boost their efforts in dealing with gender-based violence cases decisively and in record time.

Among others at the function was the police’s acting director for forensics, Superintendent of Police, Andrew Mubiru and other officers.