The leader of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Gen Mugisha Muntu, has called for increased funding of Police’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to build its capacity to respond to rising criminality around the country.
Speaking to the media at the party headquarters on Thursday, Muntu explained that the CID has failed to solve the spate of murders in the greater Masaka sub-region because it’s grossly underfunded.
“It is unfortunate what is happening in Masaka, we don’t have clear details yet but one hopes that more resources can be put into the police force to ensure that it is able to respond effectively in any part of the country where a wave of crime like that happens,” he said.
“Police is not well equipped to handle a number of these issues because most of its focus is on the operation to crash any sign of civil disobedience that is where their focus normally is and of course counter terrorism. The department like CID is underfunded,” he added.
Muntu explained that this can frustrate their effort to carry out investigations and be able to arrest the culprit and have them presented to the courts of law where there are cases which are well investigated so that the precaution department can have them prosecuted, tried and sentenced.
“We normally have these waves, even when they arrest the culprits you never hear that anybody has been successfully tried and sentenced. More money needs to be pumped into the security organs for easy facilitation so that they are able to contain a situation of such nature, ”he noted.
As the country continues to mourn the death of the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen Paul Lokech who passed on last week, Muntu described the deceased as a courageous, fine and an officer with good morals.
“His performance in the field of army was definitely excellent in all the combat operations in which he was involved. It is unfortunate that before he passed on he was redeployed in the police force as the deputy IGP,” he said.
