Prime
It’s a hard knock life for an officer’s wife
A wife of a policeman bangs a saucepan during the demonstration. They banged household utensils as they matched on the road. File Photo
Christine’s husband keeps law and order. His department in the Police Force is currently uncovering piles of cash-siphoned off by some avaricious elements in government. With such an uphill task, one might expect that Christine’s husband earns quite an admirable sum of money from his demanding job.
“Exactly the way he goes to work in the morning is the same way he returns,” she says, while responding to my queries whether her husband is tempted to take bribes and let the culprits off the radar. She is bold enough to admit that many times, she has advised him to use all “necessary means”, if only for them to get a better life, but he is so passionate about his work, she says.
Off the tarmac potholed road that leads to Naguru, a relatively rich suburb, is a dusty bumpy road that leads to the Naguru Barracks, where the couple lives.
This barracks was constructed in the 1950s, but has never been renovated. Here Christine seeks a “better income” by roasting maize, to supplement the meager salary of the family head. It is nine months now since she started the business after stints as a sweet banana and other merchandise vendor, respectively for the past five years, which she gave up due to exhaustion and the continued pestering by KCCA officials.
Eight children, one small house-commonly known as a uniport or simply mama yingiya pole, a congested neighbourhood with a list of vices like witchcraft, burglary, among others- this was not the kind of life Christine expected nearly 19 years ago, when she got married at thetender age of 17 years before they relocated to Kampala.
“Life in Gulu had become hell on earth, so I could opt to live anywhere at the time,” she recalls, adding that if she knew that her life as a Police officer’s wife would be as contemptible as this, the options would have been -early divorce, not ever marrying a policeman or alternatively remaining in the war-ravaged Gulu.
But even as she kept on thinking of the above options, government through the years kept promising a better life for the officers and rejuvenation of all the barracks, where most officers and their families stay. Unfortunately, the promises have dragged on for long.
“I have seen Inspector Generals of Police through the years come and go, promise this and that. So I’m not moved by what the current one promises,” she said in more exasperated tone.
Christine’s life reflects that of other Police officers wives in Naguru, Kireka and Ntinda, that I visited on different occasions, but found it hard to chronicle their pitiable lives at a time.
A hard knock life
At 6am every day, Christine is out and about in Nakawa market looking for fresh maize fruits that will be sold in the evening. On good days, she makes between Shs7,000 and Shs10,000 while on bad ones, Shs5,000 or less. Although most of it is spent on food and other domestic bills, she is saving hard so that her third daughter currently in Senior Five, gets a chance to join a technical institute. She has 14 family members, ( eight children, two nephews, and four other relatives) plus her husband to feed daily
Their diet comprises beans, cassava, maize or millet depending on what is cheaper. Her husband earns a monthly salary of Shs300, 000. Two of her children qualified to study in any higher institution of learning, but this proved too hard lest others dropped out of school.
“My son is in the police academy while my daughter got married last year to a police officer one year after completing her Senior Six,” she says.
“What hurts me most is that he does not get promoted either,” she adds. Since her husband joined the force in 1988, he has not been promoted, she says, yet she has seen younger people join the force, rise both in ranks and salary and then “leave this fatigued barracks life”.
“My husband loves his job although it is not rewarding, but now that it sustained us for this long. It’s the only thing we know,” she says.
Resigned to the empty promises
On November 17, when Lt.Gen Kale Kayihura called a meeting following the strike by the wives of policemen, she was among the many women inconspicuously mocking him, for he was promising what has been pledged for the last many years.
Construction of new housing units, improvement of sanitation, construction of new latrines, and establishment of development projects, among others, which come and pass in words.
Similarly, Christine’s contemporaries have no kind words for this kind of living as “internally displaced people,” one Florence noted, also spouse to a policeman, who sells vegetables in the Old Taxi Park in the evening to make ends meet.
Florence is a mother of nine and has been staying in Naguru Barracks for about 20 years. Her husband joined the Uganda Police Force in 1987, when he had just married her at the age of 16. She was four months pregnant. “My husband looked at police as the only option for a good job because we wanted to escape the nerve wrecking village life,” Florence, a Senior Five dropout, narrated. She says her husband still earns Shs280, 000 per month which is less than what many of his juniors earn despite his promotion.
During the 2006 campaigns, President Museveni promised the Force development projects to generate some income for their livelihood. Consequently, when the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) was rolled out, they too were beneficiaries.
“We were urged to form smaller groups that could easily receive loans, build chicken coops, among other requirements, which we all ensured, but ever since then nothing has come of it, Florence said, adding that, she actually turned the chicken coop into a house for her adolescent boys.
One wife named Jane informed that, they moved to Kampala about three years ago after her husband had been recruited into the force from Masindi Training School, however on reaching here, she almost went back to the village, but it was impossible because she was sixmonths pregnant.
“I don’t know which human on earth made such an order that we be brought here, because the place is completely sickening”, Janet says, adding that they are congested
and share rooms, “an environment not good for raising children”. All officers’ families within are entitled to a daily 3 kilogrammes of posho and beans, which came to pass. The wives, however, report that, the officers in charge of this distribution shifted tactics and started selling the food instead, leaving the poverty-stricken wives with the only option of buying in the markets.
In revelation, other wives also claimed not to be in position to sending their children to better schools and to Universities, yet families are required to “dispose” any child above 18 years of age from the barracks.
Because of such hardships, the husbands have turned their frustration on their wives, beating them, abusing them, and even cheating on them with the female cops.
“My husband behaves strange when he returns from work, he mistreats me and even says they (female cops) do things I cannot do,” one wife said at a meeting called on November 17 by the IGP following the strike, an assertion supported by other wives.
The officers’ wives also pointed out that the police women both in and out of the barracks are “protecting and serving” their husbands, instead of duty calls, which calls for urgent remedy. Because salaries are inadequate, the wives have resorted to private businesses like selling bananas, roasted maize, among others to support their families. With such grievances and others, it was just about time for an eruption.
Light at the end of the tunnel
The IGP promised better services to the wives beating the drums of hope that the force works on a budget of Shs394 billion with the biggest expenditure going to salaries, which he said, was the reason the rehabilitation of the barracks had not taken effect.
With some of the senior officials present, the police boss tasked them to construct new pit-latrines, ensure that all the garbage is collected from the barracks while a contractor to build the new apartments is sought.
Among other problems the IGP promised to address urgently are; promotions, salary increments and salary delays, barracks, health facilities, the increased crime rate and civilians staying in the barracks while enjoying and straining the little resources available.
But just as any other civil servants who are grappling over the paltry salaries and the poor living conditions, police officers have got their fair share over time and are likely to continued decrying the abominable life in the barracks.
