President Yoweri Museveni has said that Uganda is going to have safe and smart towns in the coming months.
The President made the revelation last evening at State House Entebbe during his live address to the nation on the spate of urban crime that has seen the killings of Moslem clerics namely Sheiks Mustafa Bahiga, Daktur Muwaya, Jowat Madangu, Yusuf Ssentamu, Kirya and Yunis Sentuga.
Other slain Ugandans include Joan Kagezi, Maj. Sulaiman Kiggundu, former AIGP Felix Andrew Kaweesi, Susan Magara, Arua MP Col. Ibrahim Abiriga, Police Officer Muhammad Kirumira, women in Entebbe and Nansana areas and the slaying of people on New Year Day this year in the Masaka area.
Mr. Museveni said that although he was annoyed and pained by the unnecessary deaths of Ugandans, he is confident that government has the capacity to respond and curb the crime.
“We were able to respond and win when we had less means.
Our means are much greater today. The pigs that have doomed their future by shedding the blood of innocent Ugandans, have only themselves to blame for their eternal damnation,” he warned.
He explained that in the past, government had concentrated on defending the borders, defeating terrorism in the rural areas and ending the massive armed cattle rustling in Karamoja and the North Eastern areas of Uganda because urban crime was not yet a major problem.
“We did not anticipate that evil minded people would want to turn something good into an instrument of killing Ugandans. If we had known, we could not easily have dealt with all the challenges at the same time,” he said.
He said that now that every corner of Uganda had seen signs of development, such tarmac roads, electricity, new schools, new health centers and mobile phones, government would intensify its work in the towns, not only in terms of more urban roads, garbage collection, improved sewerage but also in terms of security infrastructure and cleanliness of cities and towns.
“By the end of 9 months from today, most of the elements of the smart and safe city will be in place. We shall, then, scale down the reliance on human intelligence and human observation because the technical means will be in place,” he said.
The President said the government was taking the following measures to ensure peace: finger printing all the guns in Uganda, installation of electronic number plates in motor vehicles and cycles, banning the practice of people zooming along roads with jacket hoods to hide their identity, installation of cameras on the town roads and streets and also along the highways, building a modern forensic laboratory, control the use of drones, improving the speed of response and how quickly police arrives at crime scenes.
Other methods include acquiring more scanners under the Uganda Revenue Authority to look into all the containers entering and leaving Uganda so that the under-declarers of imports stop cheating URA and criminals who infiltrate guns hidden as cargo are apprehended or deterred, deploying reserve forces to boost the Police and ensuring that social media is not used by criminals to threaten violence and spread lies.
President Museveni said that as the new systems are being put in place, the old methods such as vigilance, quick coordination with the Police, deployment of the Reserve Units in the Kampala-Wakiso areas or other areas where they may be needed, among other methods, would still be used to curb out crime.
“Each Police Station or Post should have a toll-free number that is known to the public in the area that every member of the public with a phone can ring when he/she sees anything suspicious.
This number should not be the number of the Officer-in-Charge of the station because that Officer may be in meetings and switch off the phone.
The number should be for the police personnel on duty at the Police Station so that the reaction is instant,” he said.
Mr. Museveni said the Police should also coordinate efficiently within the Force by using radios rather than the slow methods of using the unprofessional mobile phones.
“The radios alert everybody to be on the lookout for the fugitive motor-cycle or car while a mobile phone communicates with one person at a time. It should be the public to use the mobile phones, not the Police, while communicating among themselves,” he advised.
He observed that the purge of the criminal and corrupt elements that had infiltrated the Police has made the public hostile towards the Police adding that the Police was being cleaned of the criminal elements that had infiltrated it.
The President warned the intelligence personnel about neglecting information from the public.
“There has been serious internal criticism of the intelligence staff that have been neglecting information from the public, unjustifiably labeling information sources as intelligence peddlers or not concluding investigations,” he said.
President Museveni encouraged private citizens that are able, to continue installing cameras in their homes and business premises as some of the cases might benefit from such installations of those private cameras.
Prime Minister, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, Security Minister, Gen. Elly Tumwiine, that of Defense and Veterans’ Affairs, Hon. Adolf Mwesige, of Internal Affairs, Gen. Jeje Odongo, the Commander of the Defense Forces, Gen. David Muhoozi, Assistant Inspector General of Police, Brig. Sabiiti Muzeeyi, Director of Criminal Investigations’ Department, Ms. Grace Akullo, the Director of Internal Security Organization, Col. Frank Kaka Bagyenda and the Chief of Military Intelligence, Col. Abel Kanduho, attended the briefing.
