Poor performance by police reason for bad image- Jeje Odongo

The internal affairs minister General Jeje Odongo has tasked senior police officers to fight hard and restore the police image, which he says has sunk to the lowest in the recent times.

He says the force is always in the media but most of the stories are negative. In the two day police council sitting in Kigo, the minister says senior officers will find time to review what has brought the police image to that level.

At the opening of the two-day police council meeting Odongo told officers that the police force should clean its image by its performance.

‘’It’s only the force’s performance that will be a remedy to the recent attacks,” he said.

He has also urged the police leadership to close the gap between the DPCs and RPCs in the field and the police headquarter where the police chief sits, which gives room for infiltration.

Odongo says Improving and protecting police’s image is key and should be priority this quarter.

The Inspector General of Police General Kale Kayihura has asked the minister to assist the force get relieved of the big debt that totals to Shs125 billion.

Kayihura says this is affecting operations of the Uganda police.

In response to this the minister said; ‘’ I will be meeting the finance minister for us to discuss what we can do about this debt because it certainly, affects our performance especially in light with what the new regulations are, that the debt takes first call on your budget. It therefore means we will even begin next budget in negative.’’

The Uganda police force has a budget of 533 billion Uganda shillings, which cannot cover the outstanding debt.

 

By Salmah Namwanje