Police officers on a patrol pick-up truck. PHOTO | UPF
The Uganda Police Force has been hit by a serious shortage of vehicles, especially for patrol duties, which has hindered operations, especially in the Kampala Metropolitan Police area and other parts of the country.
Mr Linos Ngompek, the Kibanda North Country legislator, who is also the deputy chairperson of Parliament’s Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs, told Sunday Monitor that matters are not helped by the age of the fleet.
“Most of the fleet they have were procured more than 10 years ago while Gen Kayihura was the Inspector General of Police. Such an old fleet cannot really help the Force to manage the ever increasing crime rate,” Mr Ngompek said.
Sources within the Force indicated that the Kampala Metropolitan Police area, which is divided into three policing regions, namely Metropolitan Police East, North and South, has less than a dozen of functioning patrol cars, a figure which is disputed by Kituuma Rusoke, the Force’s spokesperson.
“Of course we cannot give you the statistics because that is classified information, but I crosschecked with commander- KMP and the director of operations, and they assured me that it is not true. What I can tell you is that every division of Kampala has at least one functional patrol car,” Mr Rusoke said.
According to information on the website of the Force, Kampala Metropolitan East comprises five divisions, Jinja Road, Kira Road, Kira Division, Mukono, and Nagalama. There are six divisions under Kampala Metropolitan North. These include Kawempe, Wandegeya, Old Kampala, Wakiso, Kasangati, and Kakiri. The six divisions under Kampala Metropolitan South are: Katwe, Kabalagala, Central, Kajjansi, Entebbe, and Nsagi.
If each division has at least one functional car, as Mr Rusoke claims, the Force in Kampala has at least 17 vehicles—a number grossly insufficient for policing a population of four million, as per the 2024 census. Rusoke acknowledged the shortage but downplayed its severity.
“There are just situations where one has maybe three vehicles and one has an issue and requires repairs, but there is a constant repair process,” he said.
Upcountry blues
Our sources, however, say the shortage of cars extends to other districts. The report of the Auditor General for the period ending June 2023 offers support.
“Out of the 60 policing districts selected for physical inspections, nine policing districts had no operational vehicle to transport officers to scenes of crime, patrolling and taking suspects to courts of law,” the report reads in part.
“As I have already pointed out, most of the fleet is really old and as a committee we realised that it becomes quite costly to keep repairing old vehicles,” Mr Ngompek said.
The Auditor General’s report also indicates that 13 out of the 60 boats available to the Marine Police were also found to have been grounded. This leaves only 47 boats at the Force’s disposal. Mr Rusoke, however, said the Auditor General’s findings should be taken with a pinch of salt.
“They may have gotten the information wrong. You see the manner in which that data is picked leaves room for error. A car is functional, but if you subjected it to a technical qualification of an auditor he may classify it as non-functional. That is as good as saying that one does not have,” he said.
Budget allocation
Mr Ngompek was quick to point out that the House Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs has since recommended that the Force be allocated funds to procure new vehicles. The recommendation is contained in the Committee report on the ministerial policy statements and budget estimates for the Financial Year 2024/2025 for the Internal Affairs ministry under which the police falls; even if it is self-accounting.
While appearing before Parliament during last financial year, the police presented a request for Shs539.3 billion to enable it acquire a new fleet of patrol vehicles for all districts, troop carriers, and motorcycles in the Financial Year 2024/2025.
The Finance ministry had, however, indicated in the budget framework paper that it would avail only Shs22.03 billion, leaving a funding gap of Shs517.26 billion. Whereas the committee did not recommend that it be availed the entire Shs517.26b, it proposed that at least Shs79.47 billion be made available to procure transport equipment for all districts.
“The committee looked at their request and found it necessary to appeal to [the] government to give the Force more funds to procure movables,” Mr Ngompek said.
Background
The police’s fleet of cars increased during Gen Kayihura’s tenure. With the increase of the budget from Shs50b in 2005 to Shs550b by the time he left, the fleet increased from 572 vehicles to 5,000. The Force also acquired two helicopters.
The fleet is, however, said to have been drastically affected by budget cuts that saw most of the vehicles grounded. The Auditor General puts the number at 153 motorcars and 815 motorcycles.
