Gen Kayihura
Posted Saturday, February 6 2016 at 23:00
– The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, decorated 496 officers with new ranks but many shunned the ceremony, saying the new promotions were a sham based on bribery, tribalism and favouritism.
The officers, who were decorated at Police Headquarters at Naguru in Kampala on Friday, were promoted by President Museveni on Thursday.
Gen Kayihura admitted he had received complaints from police officers who were left out in the promotions, especially those from the Band department.
Heads of the affected directorates did not turn up for the decoration ceremony, prompting Gen Kayihura to send a late message for them to attend.
There are allegations that even the lists of officers recommended for promotions sent by police directors were edited at the last moment at police headquarters and names of qualified officers were replaced with favoured ones.
Gen Kayihura, however, distanced himself from any culpability, saying the promotions committee is headed by his deputy, Mr Martin Okoth-Ochola.
“Human resource development [officers], there are some officers who are disgruntled because they haven’t been promoted. There should be mobility. You will not have accusations that there was favouritism. Let us solve this problem,” Gen. Kayihura observed.
He ordered Mr Okoth-Ochola to investigate the claims and reconsider those officers who were unfairly left out of the promotions.
Majority of the officers who cried of unfairness in the Thursday promotions are in the general duties, directorates of criminal investigations and traffic.
Some officers moved up more than two ranks, which former minister of Internal Affairs, the late Gen Aronda Nyakairima, had rejected.
This is not the first promotion controversy in the police. In 2010, three police officers in the human resource directorate were arrested for soliciting bribes to include officers on the promotion list.
Gen Kayihura said the promotion of officers has helped improve the police capability.
A superintendent of police, who preferred anonymity for fear of reprimand, said the scheme to deny them promotions started when they were sent for a six-month course in an army institute early last year.
The superintendent said when they returned from the training, they found their posts had been given to low rank officers.
“We were told to report to police human resource administration for redeployed. Up to now, we remain on katebe (undeployed). It is the names of these favoured low rank officers who were sent to the Police Authority for promotions on pretext that their ranks were not commensurate to the offices they occupied,” the officer said.
Many of the officers promoted were commanders at regional, district and station levels. Most of them were posted in those positions late last year.
abagala@ug.nationmedia.com
