Museveni appointed Gen. Kalekyezi to head the police force with a sole mission of personalising it. In December 2008 Museveni publicly ordered Gen. Kalekyezi to clean up the officers who do not support government policies. He argued thus; “Even the colonial government police understood the policies of their country, which is why they arrested Omukama Kabalega of Bunyoro in defence of imperialism.”
Indeed, he has almost achieved this objective at a rating of 85%. He has managed to eliminate the unwanted tribes from the force’s strategic command and administrative positions and replaced them with those from Kiruhura, Mbarara and Kisoro. He has managed to turn the police into a coercive army of the regime’s umbrella organisation, NRM. He has succeeded in militarising the police and turned it into a brutal force against political dissent and civilians in general.
Yet Museveni recently cried foul alleging that civilians fear to take information to the police. In April 2011, the parliamentary committee on state enterprises and statutory authorities questioned the top police leadership over police cadet recruitment described as “an exclusive club constituted on the basis of political, regional and tribal affiliations.” Basing on the documentary evidence provided by a whistleblower, the committee was shocked to learn that the cadet recruitment for 2010/2011 had picked 23 recruits from Kiruhura, followed by Kisoro with 20, Ntungamo with 19 while northern, central and eastern region districts had one recruit per district but even some districts had none. The then Human Resource director, Richard Bisherurwa defended the irregularity arguing that the criteria had considered affirmative action and professional training.
Some members of the police have a licence to arbitrarily arrest, kidnap, illegally detain, torture, maim, kill, rob, steal, extort, solicit for bribes, black mail, protect high profile criminals, invade courts of law and defy court orders while it enjoys total protection from the regime. Within its ranks, deployment, advanced training, assignments, attachments, and promotions are on the basis of tribe, political affiliation and godfathers. The Inspector General of Government (IGG) is investigating the same irregularities but obviously, nothing will be brought to light.
During the recent funeral of Gen. Kaweesi who was shot dead most likely by his colleagues over
position and the accruing resources, Museveni once again instructed Gen. Kalekyezi to clean up the police which he described as infiltrated by criminals. Museveni knows very well that it’s the likes of Kaweesi, Arooni Baguma, Kataratambi, Komurubuga, Kato, Joram Mwesigye, and others from the preferred regions who have committed heinous crimes but have been shielded by his regime. Instead, we have seen the likes of Omara, Kirumira, Okalany, Ogwal and others in that category reprimanded and sent on remand in some cases.
Somewhere midway it was also alleged that those officers who were impartial in their conduct were being put on Katebe (rendered redundant) and replaced by those from Ankole and Kisoro. Much later, the Bishop of Moroto put Gen. Kalekyezi to task to explain why all the four cadets who had been deployed in Moroto, three were from Ankole and one was from Kisoro.
In December 2015 while handing over motorcycles to crime preventers in Ntungamo, Gen. Kalekyezi disclosed that whatever he does is based on Museveni’s orders thus; “For us we are small people; agents. I work on orders; the Commander in Chief’s (CIC) orders. When you are going to war, the CIC gives instruments of war. He gave me an order; do I have a choice? If I don’t do this, he dismisses me, of course I like my job.” He went ahead to add thus; “Those who have been saying Kayihura is militarizing police, it’s in the law. This is just the beginning, have you not seen the plane in the air, I found the police with SAR, they now have anti-aircraft machine guns. Am going to buy Sabasaba, why not. This is the order from the president.”
During the last general election campaigns, the police in Karamoja region mounted a 60mm Mortar in the middle of the road as they blocked the opposition candidate, Dr. Besigye from proceeding to the rally venue (see picture). A Mortar of whatever calibre is an army infantry weapon that is used to pound short range targets with bombs. There is no police force anywhere in the world that uses mortars save for Museveni’s militarised police.
Being a Lawyer, Gen. Kalekyezi was being smart in preparation for a rainy day – future judicial process in the form of criminal proceedings. Moreover ‘Superio order’ is a ground for defence in criminal law. For Museveni, he is trying to reap maize yet he sowed red pepper.
INFORMATION IS POWER DEFIANCE IS THE WAY TO GOhttp://nangalama.blogspot.com/…/gen-kalekyezi-implicates-mu…
